'Her position is untenable': Hampshire Conservative Party politicians send warning to Liz Truss

The criticism comes as the PM desperately tries to ward off plummeting poll numbers and economic calamity sparked by her government’s ‘mini-budget’.

One long-standing council leader declared that the prime minister’s position is ‘absolutely impossible’, while a Conservative MP warned there could be no repeat of the last two weeks.

Throwing her support behind Liz Truss, Portsmouth North MP Penny Mordaunt said that her priority was ‘market confidence and (her) constituents’ priorities’.

The MP, who is also leader of the House of Commons, said: ‘The country needs stability and some urgent legislation put through to help with the cost of living. My focus is on market confidence and my constituents’ priorities. We’ve a tough winter ahead and we need to ensure that people can come through it well. I am supporting the PM to get that done.’

Fellow cabinet member Suella Braverman, MP for Fareham and home secretary, said the PM had her full support.

She said: ‘I welcome the Prime Minister’s response to create the stability we need.

‘We’ve got to be honest about the scale of the economic challenges we face.

‘We’ve had short-term difficulties caused by the lack of an OBR forecast alongside the Growth Plan. As such, the chancellor (Jeremy Hunt) has announced a necessary set of measures that will ensure there is trust and confidence in our economy.’

Previous chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng had refused to let the Office for Budget Responsibility assess the economic impact of planned tax cuts announced last month.

Flick Drummond, the MP for the Meon Valley, said there could be ‘no repeat of what has happened over the last two weeks’ where the the PM had gone ‘too far, too fast’ with her economic plans.

The MP, who was elected in 2019 after serving as Portsmouth South MP from 2015 to 2017, said: ‘The prime minister understands the mini-budget was a mistake. It has been corrected, and I welcome that move for the country and to stabilize the markets. I do not believe anyone disagrees the UK needs better growth through lower taxation and increased productivity.

‘The issue was one of timing.

‘With that in mind, I do think the PM was correct when she said the government tried to go too far, too fast. She does now need to learn from this experience.’

Fareham Borough Council leader Sean Woodward backed the prime minister – but said her position was ‘untenable’ and ‘absolutely impossible’, and the Westminster chaos was reverberating across a local by-election in Portchester.

Cllr Woodward, who supported Penny Mordaunt and eventually voted for Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership race, said: ‘Obviously she is the leader of our party, and we support our party leader while they are leader, but i think her position is absolutely impossible.

‘The biggest shock has been the effect on mortgages – the Bank of England has said that what she did was directly responsible for mortgage rates going up more than any other country.

‘I have seen mine go up hundreds of pounds a month and the energy bills pale in comparison.

‘I don’t think people are going to forgive that very easily. And to sack the person that just did her bidding – what sort of a world is that?’

The Tory politician, who has served as a councillor since 1986, said he had never seen anything like the political turmoil gripping the country.

He said: ‘(The Conservative Party) has always had a reputation – both locally and nationally – for being economic competence. Slip-ups happen from time to time, but nothing ever like this drama.’

Now the long-standing politician has warned that he cannot foresee his party turning around their fortunes in the short term.

He said: ‘There needs to be a medium term plan to sort it out and there needs to be very significant savings found throughout government budgets.

‘It’s all been about borrow, borrow, spend, spend. That isn’t the Conservative way.’

Conservative MPs Caroline Dinenage, representing Gosport, and Alan Mak, representing Havant, were contacted for comment.

On Monday, the prime minister appeared briefly – and silently – on the floor of the House of Commons during a statement from the new chancellor, who outlined the abandonment of proposals from the ‘mini-budget’ last month.

Jeremy Hunt warned of tough spending decisions to come as he tore up the prime minister’s previous economic plan.

On Tuesday Ms Truss survived a meeting of the Cabinet without any ministers calling for her to quit, but Tory members and voters appear to be turning on her.

A snap poll of party members released on Tuesday saw more than half respond that she should resign and 83 per cent say she was doing a bad job.

Downing Street insisted the Cabinet fully supported the Prime Minister and stressed that Ms Truss was focused on the challenges facing the country rather than party infighting.

Asked whether Ms Truss was concerned about ministers discussing replacing her, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘Her view is she needs to be focused on what is right for the country rather than on any internal discussions among the party at the moment.

‘She is conscious that these are globally difficult times and the UK is in a difficult situation economically.’

Cabinet was dominated by discussions on spending after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt tore up Ms Truss’s original plan for tax cuts and increased public borrowing.

Asked if ministers offered their support, the spokesman said: ‘Certainly ministers were very involved in the discussions around preparations for the medium-term fiscal plan.’

When he was asked if any of the Cabinet suggested Ms Truss should quit, the spokesman said: ‘No.’