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Updated 1.40pm
UK PRIME MINISTER Liz Truss was battling earlier today to contain the fallout from a calamitous 24 hours for her premiership which saw a Cabinet minister resign and an open revolt in the House of Commons.
Tory MPs wondering how long the Prime Minister could go on following the chaotic events got their answer just after 1.30pm today, when she made a statement outside Downing St, announcing her resignation.
After just six weeks in office, she was out.
Chaos in Parliament
Earlier today, a senior MP said Truss had just hours to turn the situation around following the chaos in Parliament last night.
In addition, Sky News reported this morning there were 11 Tory MPs who have openly called for Liz Truss to resign, up from six yesterday evening.
It followed a disastrous day for the UK Prime Minister yesterday, as Suella Braverman lashed out at Truss’s “tumultuous” premiership as she quit and accused the Government of “breaking key pledges”.
Her resignation was to be discussed in the House of Commons at 10.30am, after Labour were granted an urgent question on the matter.
Braverman’s exit, coming just five days after Kwasi Kwarteng’s sacking as chancellor, meant the Prime Minister had lost two people from the four great offices of state within her first six weeks in office, with all eyes on whether other Cabinet ministers could follow suit.
The exodus appeared to continue with speculation that Chief Whip Wendy Morton and her deputy Craig Whittaker walked out after a last-minute U-turn on a threat to strip the whip from Conservative MPs if they backed a Labour challenge over fracking.
It came after climate minister Graham Stuart told the Commons minutes before the vote that “quite clearly this is not a confidence vote”, despite Whittaker earlier issuing a “100% hard” three-line whip, meaning any Tory MP that rebelled could be thrown out of the parliamentary party.
In extraordinary scenes at Westminster, Cabinet ministers Therese Coffey and Jacob Rees-Mogg were among a group of senior Tories accused of pressuring colleagues to go into the “no” lobby, with Labour former minister Chris Bryant saying some MPs had been “physically manhandled into another lobby and being bullied”.
Business Secretary Rees-Mogg insisted he had seen no evidence of anyone being manhandled, but senior Tory MP Charles Walker said what took place was “inexcusable” and “a pitiful reflection on the Conservative Parliamentary Party”.
“I saw Wendy looking very unhappy in the lobby and then she stormed out,” senior Tory backbencher Roger Gale told the PA news agency, while Whittaker was reported to have uttered expletives as he left.
After hours of uncertainty over their departure, Downing Street was forced to issue a clarification that both “remain in post”.
Labour’s fracking ban motion was defeated by 230 votes to 326, with the division list showing 40 Conservative MPs did not vote.
Downing Street warned that “proportionate disciplinary action” would be taken against Tory MPs who failed to back the Government in the fracking vote.
A No 10 spokesman said: “The Prime Minister has full confidence in the Chief and Deputy Chief Whip.
Throughout the day, the whips had treated the vote as a confidence motion. The minister at the despatch box was told, mistakenly, by Downing Street to say that it was not.
However, Conservative MPs were fully aware that the vote was subject to a three line whip.
“The whips will now be speaking to Conservative MPs who failed to support the government. Those without a reasonable excuse for failing to vote with the government can expect proportionate disciplinary action.”
Calls to step down
In a sign of the growing pressure on Truss, Tory former Brexit minister David Frost joined calls for her to step down.
“As Suella Braverman made so clear this afternoon, the Government is implementing neither the programme Liz Truss originally advocated nor the 2019 manifesto. It is going in a completely different direction,” the Conservative peer, who backed Truss to be Prime Minister, wrote in The Telegraph.
“There is no shred of a mandate for this. It’s only happening because the Truss Government messed things up more badly than anyone could have imagined … Something has to give”.
Paul Goodman, the editor of the influential ConservativeHome website, said he had “never seen anything like the chaos” of yesterday.
“I have to say if you’re looking for a coalition of chaos, Liz Truss is a one-woman coalition of chaos,” he told BBC Two’s Newsnight.
Walker, visibly emotional, told BBC News: “As a Tory MP of 17 years … I think it’s a shambles and a disgrace. I think it is utterly appalling. I’m livid.”
Several Tory MPs sided with him, including Maria Caulfield, who tweeted: “Tonight we are all Charles Walker.”
There is speculation that the chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, Graham Brady, had received more than 54 letters calling for a no-confidence vote in the Prime Minister, the threshold for triggering one if Truss was not in the 12 months’ grace period for new leaders.
In a barely coded dig at the Prime Minister whose disastrous mini-budget sparked financial turmoil, Braverman wrote in her resignation letter: “I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign”.
The letter continued: “The business of government relies upon people accepting responsibility for their mistakes.
“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.
“It is obvious to everyone that we are going through a tumultuous time.”
In an attempt to rescue her ailing leadership, Truss replaced Braverman with Grant Shapps, a backer of her rival Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership race and a critic of her subsequently-abandoned plan to abolish the top rate of income tax.
The former transport secretary spent the Conservative Party conference earlier this month warning that Tory MPs would not “sit on their hands” in ousting Truss without improvement.
Speaking to reporters outside the Home Office, he acknowledged a “turbulent time” but said he is looking forward to getting on with the job “regardless of what’s happening otherwise in Westminster”.
Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker claimed Truss “cannot be removed” from No 10.
He told ITV’s Peston: “The Prime Minister cannot be removed, whether she goes or not is up to her.”
A Children’s Beauty Contest …… In the back of a pub….. That says it all!!!
I’m glad mine are getting muddy playing outside
Different strokes for different folks
It would be nice if the government could be proactive & just put a blanket ban on them. Its disgraceful
Typically Irish response! “Sure it’ll be grand, we’ll keep an eye on it…” Followed up by…nothing.
She needs to get off the fence
Held in the back of a pub !!!
It gets classier by the second !
You could argue its for the public good,but who decides what is good for you and what is not,we had one organisation in this country that preached all about public morality on the one hand,but on the other failed utterly to take their own advice.
I truly cannot understand how a Minister in our country is seeking to interfere with the lawful activities of a legitimate firm undertaking legitimate business practice.
If the minister doesn’t like it at a regulatory level then she should ban it. If there is no ban then she has no business commenting on and interfering. Imagine the uproar if she started doing this to party zones or youth clubs or any other business endeavour she doesn’t like.
She is acting way beyond her power / remit in my opinion.
Go back to bed
Where could one get tickets for that…
@Hairy. Im going to chose to believe that you just threw this in to stir things up and that your head is devoid of any grey matter. These competitions are a disgusting and viel way of treating children. I agree with other comments in calling for a blanket ban by goverment. Its about time they did something useful.
Eh- slight difference with child beauty pageants and playzone- or else my kids are TOTALLY underdressed for playzone!!
Sean – the competition is completely legal. There is nothing to legally prevent it happening. The person responsible for making that happen is…. the minister for Children. She cannot do that by simply hissing and spitting at a legitimate business.
There are lots of other businesses that I don’t like. Tobacco being one of them which actively seeks to attract young children into it’s addictive products that we know kill people.
You may not like these contests – fine. Don’t send your kids to them, don’t watch them, don’t support them (I don’t). But to have a minister of our government calling for a boycott of a legitimate business is insane.
As for ‘disgusting a vial’ (sic) that is completely subjective and has no founding in fact. You are spouting off your particular tastes – which is fine as an individual. But not if you are a minister of the government.
My guess is the kids like them, the adults like them, they are generally good clean fun. I personally don’t want my kids involved – but a democracy is not about forcing your views down everyone else’s throat.
HL
I dont see any difference between child beauty pagents and the pageantry that is in irish dancing competitions amongst our young female population in this country .they are as vad if not worse because not only do you have to be made up ie make up hair and dress you are pushed to their limits mentally and physically to complete a dance routine. !!!!! I must ask the question who does this benefit the driven mums.to what gain I can’t see any difference ..I would hope that some one could look at the pagentry/ exploitation that tskes place right under our noses… well does any one agree??????
@ Regina.. , you contradict yourself by saying that yes they are over the top and the parents are the only ones that get any pleasure out if it.. Well if that’s the case surely you’ll agree that the children ARE suffering?? How is a child to know its own mind??? Forced into these competitions by parents that aren’t stable by any means.. Have you seen toddlers and tiaras ? Also, no one is calling for a ban on Irish dancing but there is an uproar about all the make up & fake tan on the children which shouldn’t be allowed at all . Our government should be more proactive by banning these toddler competitions which only attract weirdos to them .. but of course they won’t because they’re all talk and no action … Roll on the next election!
Sure if that’s the case we need also ban shows like Britain’s got talent we’re kids as young as 6 are in fierce gruelling competition and then been told by judges in front of live audiences ‘its not good enough’ How is that any different to pagents?
Erm, no. Competitive dance is a world away from a charade where kids are dressed/sprayed/teased in order to look “beautiful” and, more importantly, stripped of their individual personalities to learn off scripted replies in order to please a panel qualified in…what exactly? Competitive dance is more akin to a sporting activity and is an admirable discipline, in my opinion. Costumes are worn, sure, but every sport has its own attire…
We could just ban them cause they’re sh@te.
Irish dancing comps definitely need regulating you’re right! I would love my daughter to do it as I did but the way it has gone I wouldn’t let her
Oh you will ban these “paedo fests” minister.
If you ever wish to see the inside of the dail again you will .
I don’t like these contests and I personally wouldn’t want any of my children involved, but I’m amazed at the reaction of people about them. Is there any proof that they attract child molesters ? I mean we were all encouraged to be part of activities in the church, and look at the history there. I’m not aware of any similar stories from the child beauty contest world. Does anybody have proof otherwise? Yes they are totally OTT and the children are often only keeping their mums happy, but in and of themselves, are they really so bad? I’ve seen children looking made up with false hair and skimpy dresses at Irish dancing competitions and I haven’t heard a call to ban Irish dancing. As I said, I don’t personally agree with them, but if we banned everything we don’t agree with, life would be very dull. As long as nobody is suffering , as long as the children are safe , I say live and let live.
Regina there is a swim wear section sick sick sick
Tis sick alright Richard but, one saving grace that the swim wear section wasn’t in the Irish one.
What exactly is sick about swimwear,when everyone on the beach young and old wears them, get a grip.
What a stupid remark. They’re not swimming. They’re nowhere near a body of water.
Maybe you could explain to us stupid people what exactly they are doing.
I had to do a double take after reading this article. Child beauty contests? Another good reason to get rid of the Senate – we’ll hear less from Jillian Van Turnhout. The sexualization of children? If we were really serious about stopping that, we’d shut down the Sunday Independent.
I am confused by your obscure references! Please fill in some more detail if you want to comment and have others fully understand your position.
Thejournal.ie should be printing stories on child poverty and not child beauty contests. All this hullabaloo about the so-called “sexualization of children” is fake moral outrage. Clear enough for you?
Why don’t you set up Paulcarr.ie and write your own articles about issues that you deem worthy. Child poverty and child sexualization go hand in hand across the world from Thailand to Europe. Viewing children as objects is a gobal issue.
A child sexualization crisis is bullshit. A child poverty crisis is real.
It is the sexualisation of young children, why the hell can’t parents just let their kids be kids! The Irish govt bangs on about the protection of the child (and rightly so), they should make a stand and ban these events.
Well we do not want to turn into a Nanny state either.If a parent feels it is ok to parade babies and toddlers around the back room of a pub dressed inappropriately then that is there decision.If they wish to bring their children up to believe their future is in their beauty,to be successful in life you need to be beautiful and skinny then let them.What I would like to see is some sort of regulation on the lower age limit,maybe from eight upwards when the children are old enough to understand and have some say in what they doing.
The majority of these children have zero say in competing. A nanny state is a very different concept to a state where children are valued and protected. These pagents are disgraceful, the sad emphasis on having your child ‘bettered’ with fake teeth,fake tan, fake hair, waxing and tweezing nutures feelings of insecurity and poor self worth among children. This is not a sport, it is a dire attempt by fat loser, uneducated, parents trying to live vicariously through their children and failing miserably.
All of the international paedophile rings discovered in recent months have had Irish connections and it has to be asked if they source some of their material here? Video editing is relatively easy these days and keep in mind how fast the photos of that kid at Slane went around the world.
It’s the parents that should be banned!
Worrying about child beauty pageants, how sad, just let them get on with it, at least it keeps the contestants obese forty something mums entertained.
I doubt this one could even monitor her own blood sugar levels if she was diabetic.
Monitor what?! They said they’ll be back next yr. Now is the time to start the ball rolling with a ban. A lukewarm sentiment if you ask me!
I cannot believe some of the stupidity on this thread. This is called freedom of speech and expression people…. you may not like it but that is what happens in a democracy.
What’s next on this Ministers cross-hairs…. Bonnie baby photos to be banned, female footballers wearing shorts to be sent off the pitch until they cover up to a more ‘appropriate level’, kids bikinis for the beach being burned in retail stores….
We have states like that already. If you want to live in them head east to sunnier climes…. and bring your Burka.
Red thumb away – the wisdom of crowds in action!
I agree that these “pageants” give a very bad message to children, and a swimwear competition is certainly inappropriate, but I don’t find them more offensive than parents letting boys play with pretend machine guns (can we call it “militarization” of children?).
Maybe organizers should rename them “talent” contests and everyone would be pleased
The way Europe’s going they’ll soon be wearing burkas, just in case we arouse the uncivilized
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