Three Tory MPs have called on Liz Truss to quit as pressure grows on the Prime Minister.
MP’s Crispin Blunt, Jamie Wallis and Andrew Bridgen have all said the PM should step down, after her disastrous six weeks in government.
Crispin Blunt, MP for Reigate told Channel 4’s Andrew Neil Show: ‘I think the game is up and it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed.’
He was followed by Andrew Bridgen on Sunday evening, who told the Telegraph: ‘We cannot carry on like this.’
Mr Bridgen, who backed Rishi Sunak in the leadership contest over the summer, said: ‘Our country, its people and our party deserve better.’
Tory MP Jamie Wallis also confirmed that he had written to Ms Truss, asking her to stand down.
It comes as other senior figures within the parliamentary party expressed deep unease with Ms Truss’s leadership but stopped short of calling for her to go.
Mr Blunt, who backed Jeremy Hunt in the leadership contest, released a statement on Sunday in which he said that most of his colleagues ‘clearly understand that Prime Minister Truss’s authority is now fatally damaged’.
MORE : Jeremy Hunt rushes off from Chequers after ‘crisis talks’ with Liz Truss
MORE : Rishi Sunak’s allies ‘launch coordinated effort to oust’ Liz Truss
MORE : Kwasi Kwarteng ‘believes Liz Truss will be gone in a few weeks’Tk
‘She has to go now as she cannot win nor sustain the confidence of her colleagues, far less the public and a relentless media.
‘The principal emotional reactions to her public presentation is now a mixture of anger, contempt and pity.
‘It’s a blinding glimpse of the obvious that this cannot and should not continue.’
He called for former leadership contenders Mr Sunak, Mr Hunt and Penny Mordaunt to come together to steer the party out of the current crisis.
Tory MP Jamie Wallis published the letter he sent to Ms Truss, which said that he did not think she could unite the divided party.
Mr Wallis, who came out as trans earlier this year, told the Prime Minister: ‘Watching senior colleagues exploit the issue of transgender rights and weaponise it in order to score cheap political points was extremely unpleasant.’
He goes on: ‘You chose not to challenge this behaviour and have now chosen to have those same colleagues sit alongside you in your government.’
Mr Hunt, widely seen now as the most powerful man in Government, insisted on Sunday that ‘the Prime Minister’s in charge’.
He also told BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that after two failed leadership bids, his desire for the top job has been ‘clinically excised’.
But former chancellor George Osborne, who is no longer an MP, told the Andrew Neil Show that Ms Truss will most likely be gone ‘before Christmas’.
Asked if Ms Truss can survive, he said: ‘Probably not. She is pino – Prime Minister in name only at the moment.’
He acknowledged ‘things are unpredictable’, and said it is ‘possible to imagine a situation’ where she ‘completely resets’, albeit that is a ‘long shot’.
Former health secretary Matt Hancock said the Prime Minister needs to reshuffle her Cabinet.
Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg about the prospect of a leadership contest, Mr Hancock said ‘I don’t think we’re there yet,’ but he added she needs to do three things: deliver an economically credible plan, reshuffle her Cabinet, and restore trust.
‘She needs to bring the broad Conservative Party in her Government. She needs a reshuffle,’ he said.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.