Liz Truss is facing cabinet unrest over her plans for brutal public spending cuts across all departments after the disastrous mini-budget put major pledges at risk, including the pensions triple lock.
The prime minister held a cabinet meeting yesterday in which she warned ministers that difficult decisions” lay ahead.
The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, told them everything is on the table” as he strives to find tens of billions of savings after ditching Truss’s economic plan. Health, education and welfare are among those departments expected to be hit.
One Whitehall official said that departments were already preparing for cuts significantly higher” than previously planned, with Hunt’s tax U-turns estimated to raise 32bn, leaving a 38bn hole in the public finances. Truss remains in a precarious position, having in effect handed power to Hunt, with a YouGov poll showing that half of Conservative members think she should resign. A significant majority would also support a coronation of a new prime minister by Tory MPs.
Senior ministers are expected to capitalise on Truss’s weakness and resist deep cuts, with the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, indicating he would be prepared to quit his job if she did not honour her campaign pledge to spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030.
She faces a humiliating prime minister’s questions against Keir Starmer today after one of the most dramatic U-turns in modern times, with Downing Street aides concerned that rebel Tory MPs could seize the moment to publicly call for her to go.
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