Truss quits: Blackpool MP reveals he wrote letter of no confidence prior to resignation

Blackpool South MP, Conservative Scott Benton, has revealed he lodged a letter of no confidence in the prime minister earlier this week.

Following the decision of Liz Truss to quit as Conservative Party leader, the UK will have its third Prime Minister in just a few months after her decision to step down after just 44 days in office, with the party aiming to elect a new leader by the end of next week.

In a statement, Mr Benton said ‘’For the last few weeks I’ve been hoping that this day would come.

‘’Sadly, Liz has not had the confidence of the general public, or Tory MPs, since the mini budget statement weeks ago. I wrote a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister to the Chair of the 1922 committee on Monday of this week.

‘’Liz is a patriot who always wanted the best for our country. She could see that economic storm clouds lied ahead and was determined to counteract this by trying to boost economic growth and help families with the cost of living.

‘’Her energy price guarantee has done the latter, saving families £1500 this winter, but on the former it is clear that she tried to do too much too quickly. All of the measures announced in the mini budget were sound policies - in good economic times - to go for growth. However, the markets were unsettled by them and where the money would come from, she didn’t explain the policies properly, and it was the wrong time for some of the measures such as the 45p tax rate cut and the bankers bonuses issue, neither of which I supported. There is market turbulence in every major economy at present and the notion that Liz ‘crashed the economy’ is for the birds. Those polices did however cause short term reactions in the markets rather than the economic stability we needed.

‘’There are no easy choices or options in the middle of a global inflationary boom and cost of living crisis. Probably why Labour or any other parties don’t have any policies at the moment. The PM did what she thought was the right thing for the country and in different economic circumstances, had she brought the measures in more gradually, they would probably have succeeded. Time, however, was not a luxury she enjoyed in the middle of an economic downturn.

‘’The key thing for the country now is stability. We’ve announced huge packages of support for families this winter to help with rising bills and there are difficult decisions ahead to balance the books - you can’t bail out people’s energy bills, and given out huge packages of support both at the present time and during Covid, as we have done, without paying for them. I will ensure that the interests of our community are represented as these difficult decisions are made.

‘’I’ll be supporting the candidate who I think is best placed to offer economic stability and face the challenges facing our nation.’’

Meanwhile, the Fleetwood MP has called for a General Election.

Cat Smith said: “The Conservative Party no longer has a mandate to govern. They’ve crashed the economy and now three Prime Ministers in four months. This can’t go on.

‘’After 12 years of Tory failure, the British people deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos. In the last few years, the Tories have set record-high taxation, trashed our institutions and created a cost-of-living crisis.

‘’We must have a chance at a fresh start. We need a general election - now.”