Andrew Marr: 'Discipline is breaking down' among Tories as trouble spreads to Cabinet

4 October 2022, 18:22

Andrew Marr asks what if Sunak and Mordaunt offered to take over together?

"Discipline is breaking down" among the Tories as trouble spreads to the Cabinet, Andrew Marr has said.

Opening LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr, the presenter said tensions continued to grow within the Tory party, with even senior ministers turning on Prime Minister Liz Truss.

"So another day at the Conservative Party Conference and another little dollop of mayhem," Andrew said.

"Yesterday we were talking about rebellious Tory MPs and the possibility of a coup against the Prime Minister.

"Today, the trouble seems to have spread to the Cabinet.

"In a single interview for Sky News, Liz Truss refused to say three times that she trusts her Chancellor."

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'She makes Keir Starmer look like a very very credible leader.'

Andrew continued: "But let’s look at the proposal to squeeze benefits by not uprating them with inflation, one of the ways the Prime Minister had wanted to save money.

"Penny Mordaunt, who fought Truss for the leadership and is now in her Cabinet as leader of the Commons broke ranks this morning.

"She'd always supported keeping the welfare in pace with inflation - she said: 'We want to make sure that people are looked after.'

"Next, Simon Clarke, the Levelling Up Secretary and former chief secretary to the Treasury comes out against the reversal of the 45p tax cut just announced by the Chancellor and Prime Minister.

"He backs Suella Braverman who, you may have noticed is Home Secretary.

"Braverman says that she was 'disappointed' by the u-turn and accuses Tory members of staging a coup.

"Clarke says Suella speaks 'a lot of good sense as usual'.

"But hold on. if you attack a u-turn just carried out by your leader isn't that now rebellion? Only asking for a friend.

"Discipline is breaking down. This isn't sustainable.

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"By the way, yet again today Nadine Dorries calls for a general election I don't know how it's going to end, but end it will.

"Talking to one of the many ministers too busy waxing their eyebrows or playing shove-halfpenny to come on and defend Liz Truss, I heard a clear prediction that yes, there will be an early election. But how?

"I was told: 'If a Prime Minister can't get her business through the House of Commons and the party can't get rid of the Prime Minister then that's national paralysis and at that point the King has a duty to step in.

"'He's new in the job but he would have to tell her she needed a mandate and she would have to listen.'

"You heard it here first. But are we sure that Liz Truss will not be replaced by the Tories?

"As I said yesterday, there is no single plausible alternative.

"But I am hearing a double one: If Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt linked arms and offered to take over together, how would the party react? Again, only asking for a friend.

"Lots to talk about and luckily there are senior Conservatives prepared to speak openly in difficult times."