Undertaker Liz Truss is burying herself after overseeing the Conservative Party’s funeral in Birmingham. Bewildered mourners grieving the death of the governing party didn’t conceal their hostility. Johnsonite MPs who opposed deposing Boris now threaten to send letters of no confidence in Truss after kami-Kwasi Kwarteng’s screeching 45p tax U-turn was followed by clashes on benefits and public services. One backbencher growled that he had rejected a parliamentary private secretary role because he’s defending a seat that “only” has a low five-figure majority. Every battleground constituency is now a defensive operation for the Tories, whispered a strategist, with zero resources earmarked for targeting seats. Tory bricks in Red and Blue walls are crumbling.
Kwarteng’s “a little turbulence” comment on a costly political and financial crisis echoed the former chancellor Norman Lamont’s “Je ne regrette rien” declaration after Black Wednesday cost the Tories every last penny of economic credibility in 1992. “The problem with Kwasi,” an ex-cabinet minister blubbed into his warm white wine, “is Eton. Those whom the gods would destroy they first send to that cursed school.” Nadine Dorries would approve of class war in Brum.
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