Truss says she's not blameless but points to,
- her party
- the Treasury
- the public
- even the US President
for not giving her ideas as fair crack of the whip...
- and don't forget her predecessors or the current PM
From front page (can't see full text yet), Truss is defiant about her principles and points finger at those who disagreed with her, altho she does admit to some mistakes
Unless, it's buried on the inside of the paper, not much sign of remorse or regret for the people who lost out because of market reaction to her plan... and while she chucks blame at the Treasury and the OBR, she sacked its top official, and didn't involve the OBR
Not entirely sure how bond traders in the mighty financial markets that recoiled at plans for unfunded tax cuts will respond to being described as the left wing economic orthodoxy
LOTS of chat about this on #bbclaurak in the morn, but last thought - there is strong appetite for Truss-type ideology, low taxes + slashing regulation, inside the Conservative Party, but will be interesting to see if the way she's started this debate tonight will help that cause
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Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt: Who are MPs backing? - latest numbers of backers for each candidate confirmed to @BBCNews - Sunak 97, Johnson 45, Mordaunt 21 bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
True numbers maybe higher but those are confirmed names
Where those numbers land by end of the day will make huge difference to shape of the race - could the candidates do deals? Seems unlikely right now. Will Johnson get to 100? Unclear so far. Who will be PM in 6 days? Could be any one of the three
I'm told..
-Dept of Health asked No 11 for more than 5bn extra last week to maintain more free testing, eg testing of NHS staff even if they didn't have symptoms
-By Sat, DH demand down to 3bn but warned of cuts elsewhere if no more £££
-By Sunday, DH demand down to 1.8bn...
But seems talks btw DH and Treasury now settled with no extra cash, plan seems instead to move money around within exsiting Dept of Health budget - no new time agreed yet for Cabinet tho
Cabinet expected to be relatively soon after this morning's delay
"I walked in, I gave him a salute and said ‘Prime Minister, Guto Harri reporting for duty’ and he stood up from behind his desk and started to salute but then said ‘What am I doing, I should take the knee for you."....
"I then asked ‘Are you going to survive Boris?’ And he said in his deep voice, slowly and with purpose, whilst singing a little as he finished his sentence ‘I Will Survive’.
" he answered, ‘I’ve got all my love to give’, so we had a little blast of Gloria Gaynor!".. says Harri
"He's not a complete clown, he's a very likeable character.
"90% of our discussion was very serious but he's a character and there is fun to be had . He's not the devil like some have mischaracterised him."
I remember it it felt very edgy when the old chief whip said this... bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-pol… in 2019
There is a lot going on this week, but it is really extraordinary to have a row going on btw the current Chief Whip and a former minister over allegations of racism in the Tory Party and it playing out partly in public
It's an important issue in itself, but is just the latest example of what feels like a near total breakdown in discipline in the Tory Party and a lack of trust btw its many different factions
Meanwhile,,,, Starmer says 'Tory corruption scandal is eroding trust', everyone wants to 'call time on the scandal that the Prime Minister has created' he says -'it's time to ban MPs from being paid directors and commercial consultants'
Moment when Johnson was trying to defend Paterson and ministers were talking about the 'richness' that second jobs brought to Parliament feels a LONG time ago - massive reverse ferret by No 10 with naked political advantage of trying to blunt Starmer's attack today
Some on Labour side also wonder why it took Starmer this long to try and turn this moment to a big advantage with his own big speech and press conference