Responding to the resignation of Liz Truss after 45 days in
office, making hers the shortest tenure of any British prime minister Green Party
co-leader Carla Denyer has reiterated calls for a general election.
In a statement made outside Downing Street on Thursday the
outgoing prime minister said she recognized that she was unable to “deliver the mandate on which I was
elected by the Conservative Party [1]”.
This triggered a streamlined
leadership contest which will be completed by 28th October at the
latest, and my end sooner.
Responding to the
resignation Carla Denyer said the “chaos” surrounding the Conservative Party had
“spiralled beyond any pretence that the country has a viable government” [2].
Adding that it was “reckless for the Tories to claim that
they can replace Liz Truss with any leader capable of commanding authority,
nationally or internationally”.
Following the resignation three candidates emerged as front
runners to gain the 100 signatures from MPs needed to enter the ballot, former
chancellor Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and former prime minister Boris Johnson.
Johnson pulled out of the race late on Sunday evening,
despite claiming to have the backing of 102 MPs and being, by his own
estimation, “best placed to deliver a Conservative victory in 2024” [3].
He had though, he said, after “reaching out” to the two candidates
he had “sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right
thing to do. You can't govern effectively unless you have a united party in
parliament”.
At the time of writing Penny Mordaunt was still seeking the
required number of signatures and one of her backers, former cabinet minister Andrea
Leadsome told the BBC there was “absolutely no chance of her standing down” [4].
However, with just 26 MPs publicly willing to back her
compared to the 180 who have come out for Rishi Sunak her chances of entering a
second round of voting look slim.
Whoever wins the race to be the next prime minister would,
Carla Denyer said, impose “austerity 2.0” on the country, meaning “more cuts to
vital public services and more suffering for people across the country”.
They would, she went on to say, be doing so without a
mandate, making it impossible for them to govern effectively.
A general election is needed, she said, so that “people can
vote for the policies they want to see that will turn this mess around” and be
given “their chance to decide on the country’s future.”
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63332037
[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63368973
[4] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63370359
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