Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has come out fighting for Liz Truss, saying she has “learnt lessons” and had the “humility to make changes.”
Speaking on Sky News this morning, he batted down talk of a new prime minister amid speculation backbenchers are plotting behind the scenes.
“What I’m far from convinced by is that going through another leadership campaign, defenestrating another prime minister, will either convince the British people that we’re thinking about them rather than ourselves, or convince the markets to stay calm and ensure things like those bond yields and gilt yields start coming back down.
This comes after a YouGov poll yesterday placed Truss at -70 points, lower than Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn’s lowest rating during their periods in charge.
He said Truss had the “humility to make changes” and had “learnt lessons from what happened previously.”
On calls for replacing Truss with leadership contender Rishi Sunak or former prime minister Boris Johnson, Cleverly called it an “emotional response, it’s not a plan. And the prime minister’s got a plan. The chancellor, he’s got a plan.”
On today’s inflation figures which were up to 10.1 per cent for last month, he said they were “significantly lower than we’re seeing in many other parts of the developed world”, adding the Prime Minister and chancellor would be setting out “a full package of measures”.
Saying the world is “facing an unprecedented set of circumstances” driven by rising energy costs due to the war in Ukraine, he insisted the government has a strong plan of action.
On Monday, new chancellor Jeremy Hunt scrapped almost all of Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget, with Liz Truss suggesting yesterday, that she could also abandon the triple lock pension commitment, made int he 2019 manifesto.
Cleverly insisted “we take manifesto commitments seriously,” amid criticism the party is abandoning key policies which got it elected.
On Wednesday, Liz Truss faces prime minister’s questions from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
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