Four Tory MPs call on Liz Truss to resign as prime minister, claiming 'the game is up'

16 October 2022, 16:45 | Updated: 17 October 2022, 12:03

Four Tory MPs have openly called for the Prime Minister to step down after the government's mini Budget sparked economic turmoil and the sacking of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

Tory MPs Crispin Blunt, Andrew Bridgen, Jamie Wallis and Angela Richardson have all called on Liz Truss to resign.

Mr Blunt, the first to call on her to go, claimed the under-fire PM cannot survive turmoil in Westminster, which saw Jeremy Hunt replace Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor on Friday.

He told Channel 4 News: "I think the game is up and it's now a question as to how the succession is managed.

"If there is such a weight of opinion in the parliamentary party that we have to have a change, then it will be effected.

"Exactly how it is done and exactly under what mechanism... but it will happen."

Mr Wallis said he has "watched as the Government has undermined Britain’s economic credibility & fractured our Party irreparably".

"Enough is enough," he said.

"I have written to the Prime Minister to ask her to stand down as she no longer holds the confidence of this country."

Ms Richardson was the most recent to call for Ms Truss' resignation, saying her position is "no longer tenable" in the wake of Jeremy Hunt's announcement on the mini Budget.

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He is planning to step down as an MP at the next general election.

It came hours after US President Joe Biden scolded the government's tax cut plans during a visit to an ice cream parlour.

He said: "I disagree with that policy.

"But it's up to Britain to make that judgement, not me."

New Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, brought in to replace the sacked Kwarteng and to restore credibility to Downing Street, spent Saturday effectively trashing the mini-budget and the set of policies that brought Ms Truss to power.

Amid warnings of "difficult decisions" to come over the next two weeks, Mr Hunt and Ms Truss will meet in her Chequers residence on Sunday as tax rises and spending cuts loom on the horizon.

The Chancellor, who spent Saturday also meeting with Treasury officials, insisted that he and the Prime Minister were a "team" as he said that his priority was "growth underpinned by stability".