Truss government in chaos amid budget confusion and coup accusations
Liz Truss’s government is in chaos after the chancellor refused to confirm he would bring forward his budget to calm the markets and the home secretary accused fellow MPs of a coup against the prime minister.
Cabinet discipline also appeared to have broken down on Tuesday, as two ministers, Robert Buckland and Penny Mordaunt, suggested they did not back the idea of cutting benefits – an idea floated by those close to No 10.
Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng embarked on a round of media interviews intended to convey a message that they were getting a grip after the damaging 45p U-turn. However, they triggered more confusion as both said their medium-term fiscal plan would still happen on 23 November, despite government sources having briefed that it would be brought forward to try to reassure the markets.
Adding to the sense of open warfare in the party, Suella Braverman, the home secretary, accused Tory MPs of having “staged a coup and undermined the PM in an unprofessional way” to force the reversal of the abolition of the 45p rate.
“We are one party, the prime minister has been elected. She has got a serious mandate to deliver. She did talk about tax cuts all through the summer in a pretty exhausting process. She is doing what it said on the tin,” she told the Telegraph’s Chopper’s Politics podcast.
She was backed by Simon Clarke, the levelling up secretary, who said: “Suella speaks a lot of good sense, as usual.”
This was, however, contested by backbench MPs including Simon Hoare and Steve Double, who said they had been sticking up for their constituents in opposing the abolition of the 45p rate.
Backbenchers also expressed outrage at Braverman’s suggestion of a “coup” against Truss. Double, the MP for St Austell and Newquay, said:
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