Under questioning, Truss says she is a fighter and will not give up

UK Prime Minister Liz Truss said on Wednesday she was “a fighter and not a quitter”. She was responding to questions from the opposition in Parliament, which has been pushing for her to leave since her economic plan went down the drain.

“I acted in the national interest to ensure that we have economic stability,” he added in the discussions. The argument is the same used two days earlier, when in an interview with the BBC she apologized for the mistakes and commented on the reasons for having reversed her economic strategy in less than six weeks of government.

The heart of the tensions lies in the tax cut proposed by Truss since his campaign to lead the Conservatives. After the election, however, the market reacted badly to the plan, fearing catastrophic consequences of the fall in tax revenue at a time of high inflation driven by rising energy costs. At the time, the value of the pound and the prices of government bonds plummeted, forcing the Bank of England to step in to protect pension funds.

The fall was only controlled after Truss announced the suspension of the fiscal program, fired Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng and appointed Jeremy Hunt, an ally of Rishi Sunak, his campaign opponent, to the post.

Also this Tuesday, by the way, Truss said she was committed to readjusting state pensions in line with inflation; days earlier, Hunt had deflected the matter. In the UK, a mechanism ensures that pension amounts are adjusted based on inflation, a minimum wage increase or 2.5% – adjustments are usually made in April.

“We were clear in our manifesto that we will maintain this mechanism and I am completely committed to that, as is the finance minister,” she told parliament. The prime minister, on the other hand, refused to give the same guarantee to other welfare payments and foreign aid. In the pandemic, the UK reduced this last fund from 0.7% to 0.5% of the country’s economic output.

The fact is that Truss needs to win the support of the British: the YouGov institute reported, on Tuesday (18), that eight out of ten people disapprove of the government. The rate of 77% is the highest level of dissatisfaction in the last 11 years of monitoring.

Of those polled, 87% said they believe Truss is mishandling the economy — an especially hard blow for a party that often boasts about its performance in the area and fiscal discipline. Among conservative voters, only one in five has a favorable opinion of her. The survey was carried out between the 14th and 16th.

In the midst of the devastating scenario, a number worries the prime minister even more: the number of parliamentarians willing to remove her from office. According to YouGov, only two in five (38%) defend her permanence; those who wish to resign reach 55% of respondents.

In practice, her departure from office is conditional on the presentation of 54 letters from her co-religionists asking for a vote of confidence, which would need the support of more than half of the Conservatives – 180 ballots. Boris went through the process shortly before resigning and survived.

According to the British newspaper Daily Mail, about 100 Conservatives are already ready to ask for his resignation and would be pressuring Graham Brady, who heads the Conservative Party collegiate in charge of leading the party’s leadership disputes, to follow the rhythm.

Brady, however, would be reticent about a possible new change in party leadership, noting that Truss and Hunt deserve the chance to define an economic strategy by October 31, when the fiscal plan for the coming months will be presented.

Be that as it may, Truss seems to have taken, this Tuesday, another important step towards making the life of his term last longer than a lettuce plant. The ironic comparison is from the Daily Star tabloid which, inspired by a question from The Economist magazine, created a live to follow the dispute.