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Watch: Case for General Election strengthened by new Prime Minister says Welsh Secretary

19 Oct 2022 3 minute read
Welsh Secretary Robert Buckland. Picture by Jacob King / PA Wire

The Welsh Secretary has said that the case for a new General Election would be strengthened if the Conservative Party replaced Liz Truss as Prime Minister.

Speaking on Newsnight, Robert Buckland said that “the more the Conservative Party change leaders, the stronger the case for a general election becomes”.

His comments come after approval for the UK Government fell to the lowest level on record, at just 7% according to YouGov’s poll tracker.

But Swindon South MP Buckland told Newsnight that the Conservatives should not hurry to depose Liz Truss and then find themselves facing wipeout at an election.

“Let me say this. I think the more the Conservative Party change leaders, the stronger the case for a general election comes or the Labour Party, want the conservatives to chop and change another leader because they think that their best opportunities in early election,” he said.

“I say to my colleagues, be careful what you wish for an early election serves nobody any good, not least the Conservative Party and certainly not the country.”

His words come after Truss hosted a reception for a selection of Tory backbenchers in Downing Street, and one of the attendees said her position remains “precarious”.

Clacton MP Giles Watling told BBC Newsnight: “Of course it’s precarious, she knows that, we all know that.”

Former Cabinet minister Michael Gove said it was a matter of time before Ms Truss is ousted as Prime Minister as he warned Britons to expect “a hell of a lot of pain in the next two months”.

Asked at a private event on Tuesday whether it was no longer a question of whether Ms Truss goes, but when, Mr Gove agreed that was “absolutely right”, the Guardian reported.

Triple lock

An admission from Downing Street that Ms Truss could ditch the key manifesto commitment to increase state pensions in line with inflation also sparked a swift backlash.

Her official spokesperson said she is “not making any commitments on individual policy areas” ahead of the Chancellor’s fiscal plan on October 31.

Tory backbencher Maria Caulfield said she “will not be voting to end the pensions triple lock”, with former minister Steve Double joining her in saying: “Nor me.”

Stephen Crabb, the former work and pensions secretary, told the Telegraph it is “not the time to consider abandoning the triple lock” and that “maintaining the value of the state pension during the cost-of-living crisis is essential”.


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Y Tywysog Lloegr a Cymru
Y Tywysog Lloegr a Cymru
1 year ago

So what the dishonourable member for Swindon East is saying, is that this is about clinging onto power for the Tories, not enacting the democratic will of the people?
Good to know!
Self interest first, bank account second, party third, country last of all.
Ladies, Gents, Non-Binary beans, I give you … the Conservative Party.

Frank
Frank
1 year ago

Get back in your box Buckland. No one wants to hear the words of a traitor.

Last edited 1 year ago by Frank
Argol fawr!
Argol fawr!
1 year ago

So we have a barrister politician promoting a puppet PM to allow the tories to limp along for two years creating havoc. Shysters through and through, all of them.

If this doesn’t prove the Westminster system is broken nothing will.

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