Uncertainities loom large over the Britain PM chair as rebels of the UK's governing Conservative party are mulling to oust Britain Prime Minister Liz Truss and replace her with a joint ticket of Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak, The Times reported.
A YouGov poll conducted for the 'The Times' revealed that half of Tory party members think that party chose the incorrect leader.
It is because Truss’s first budget saw the pound fall and mortgage and government debt interest rates rise.
The Conservative party backbenchers are up in arms against the party leader's tax-cutting economic policies, which they see as favouring the rich amid a cost of living crisis. Panicked lawmakers are considering alternatives to the 42-year-old British Indian former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who was the front runner with his colleagues. MPs are said to be considering supporting a joint team of Sunak and Mordaunt where the former is the Prime Minister and the latter his Deputy.
The other option is for Penny Mordaunt to take the role of party leader and PM with Rishi Sunak as Chancellor. The revelations come at a time amid increasing unease among the Conservative lawmakers with the PM widely expected to make another U-turn on her mini-budget.
Last week, Liz Truss sacked the Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng and appointed Jeremy Hunt, a former candidate for the Conservative leadership, as her new finance minister. The estimated GBP 45 billion worth of tax cuts without a detailed funding plan to back it up were seen as disastrous for the UK economy at a time when inflation has already been soaring. With Liz Truss facing severe criticism, senior Tories are discussing removing her from office after just six weeks and elect a new leader.
"Rishi’s people, Penny’s people and the sensible Truss supporters who realise she’s a disaster just need to sit down together and work out who the unity candidate is. It’s either Rishi as prime minister with Penny as his deputy and foreign secretary, or Penny as prime minister with Rishi as chancellor," an MP was quoted by the Times as saying.
Rishi Sunak was the chancellor in the Boris Johnson government and had reportedly warned Truss' that tax cutting agenda could spark economic turmoil. Sunak fell short of Truss in the party membership vote by a margin of 57 to 43%.