London: British Prime Minister Liz Truss described herself as “a fighter and not a quitter” Wednesday as she faced hostile opposition and fury from her own Conservative Party over her botched economic plan. Within hours of the defiant statement, her government was teetering on the verge of collapse.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman left her post with a fusillade of criticism at Truss, and a House of Commons vote descended into acrimony and accusations of bullying. Braverman said she resigned after breaching rules by sending an official document from her personal email account. She used her resignation letter to lambaste Truss, saying she had “concerns about the direction of this government.”
“Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics,” she said. Braverman is a popular figure on the Conservative Party’s right-wing and a champion of more restrictive immigration policies who ran unsuccessfully for party leader this summer, a contest won by Truss.
Braverman was replaced as home secretary, the minister responsible for immigration and law and order, by former Cabinet minister Grant Shapps, a high-profile supporter of Rishi Sunak. Truss faced more turmoil in Parliament Wednesday evening on a vote over fracking for shale gas — a practice that Truss wants to resume despite opposition from many Conservatives.
With a large Conservative majority in Parliament, an opposition call for a fracking ban was easily defeated by 326 votes to 230, but some lawmakers were furious that Conservative Party whips said the vote would be treated as a confidence motion, meaning the government would fall if the motion passed.
The dramatic developments came days after Truss fired her Treasury chief, Kwasi Kwarteng, last Friday after the economic package the pair unveiled on Sept. 23 spooked financial markets and triggered an economic and political crisis.
