Liz Truss news latest: Crispin Blunt becomes first Tory MP to call for PM to go

The Archbishop of Canterbury has condemned any plans by government to cut taxes for the rich amid a cost of living crisis.

Justin Welby said he is “deeply sceptical” about so-called trickle-down economics and warned there was “no moral case” for government budgets that disproportionately hit the poorest.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian while touring Australia, he said that while he expresses a desire to not be “party political” that he is concerned about tax cuts for the very wealthiest.

He said he is “extremely concerned” that use of food banks has gone up by 400 per cent in some areas.

In what appears to be an endorsement for Keynesian economics, Mr Welby said: “You know, if you cut money for the rich, ever since Keynes wrote his general theory in 1936, whenever it was, he showed very clearly that the rich save if they’ve got enough to live on.

“So if you want to generate spending in the economy, you put more money into the hands of those who need the money to buy food, to buy goods, to buy basic necessities.”

He continued: “It’s not a problem of inequality, it’s a problem of spreading wealth sufficiently in order to ensure that those at the lower end of the scale can both heat and eat and have a reasonable standard of living. And that is essential.”

Britain’s economy has become the butt of jokes around the world, Labour has said.

It comes after US president Joe Biden referred to Liz Truss’ original mini-Budget as a “mistake”.

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said: “As well as crashing the economy, Liz Truss’s humiliating U-turns have made Britain’s economy an international punchline.

“President Biden knows the dangerous folly of trickle-down economics. His comments confirm the hit our reputation has taken thanks to the Conservatives. We need a change in government.”

You can read the full story about Mr Biden’s comments here by Chris Baynes

Crispin Blunt was the first MP back in 2003 to call on Iain Duncan Smith to resign as leader of the Conservatives.

This is according to Nicholas Watt, political editor of BBC’s Newsnight.

He said that Mr Duncan Smith was out “within months” of Mr Blunt mounting the campaign on him to quit.

Now, in what could be history repeating itself, Mr Blunt was today the first Tory MP to call on Liz Truss to resign as PM.

The government’s capability to manage the current economic turmoil is “completely absent”, Alistair Darling has said.

The former chancellor had overseen the Labour government’s response to the 2008 financial crash.

He told BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show that government must “do more than people expect” during times of crisis.

Mr Darling said that the 2008 global financial crisis “was not self-inflicted”, in contrast to today’s government that has been “trashing” the Bank of England.

He added: “We were ready. We were prepared. We had a plan. We didn’t have to consult anybody else because we had our own currency, our own central bank, we could do this.”

George Osborne said that Liz Truss is “PINO – prime minister in name only” and that he expects she’d be out before Christmas.

But, the former chancellor told Channel 4 in tonight’s episode of Andrew Neil Show that it’s “possible to imagine a situation where she completely resets, she completely U-turns on the mini-Budget” that caused so much turmoil.

Mr Osborne, who had been editor of the Evening Standard after leaving Downing Street, also suggested that she could save her skin if she “does a reshuffle” and “brings in the Sunak supporters into the cabinet.”

Tory MP Crispin Blunt has said the “game is up” for Liz Truss and that she’s got to go.

He does not think the prime minister can cling on to power, he told Channel 4 in tonight’s episode of Andrew Neil Show.

“I think the game is up and it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed,” Mr Blunt said.

Asked how the Tories will get rid of her, he said: “If there is such a weight of opinion in the parliamentary party that we have to have a change, then it will be effected.

“Exactly how it is done and exactly under what mechanism… but it will happen.”

Jeremy Hunt has said that Liz Truss has “changed” as he urged Conservative MPs not to ditch their third prime minister in four years.

The new chancellor warned that voters would not thank the party for further political and economical instability.

He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that people could still put their faith in her, despite the turmoil of recent days, and that Ms Truss remained “in charge”.

You can read the full story here by Kate Devlin

Royal College of Nursing has warned chancellor Jeremy Hunt against making cuts to the Department of Health’s budget.

Mr Hunt, a former health secretary, has signalled that all departments will be forced to find more savings and cut costs.

On his third day on the job, he said he was “not taking anything off the table”.

The RCN is currently balloting for strike action.

Pat Cullen, general secretary of RCN, said: “If the new chancellor is serious about spending money more wisely, then he must invest in the nursing workforce.

“Asking the Department of Health to make yet more efficiencies – in other words, to cut costs – when the need to invest in the NHS and social care is greater than ever, does not make sense.

“Mr Hunt must put patients first. The nursing workforce crisis is undermining safe patient care and with many choosing to leave the profession for better-paid jobs elsewhere, the need to pay a demoralised and unvalued profession fairly could not be more pressing.

“These considerations must be uppermost in Mr Hunt’s mind as he announces the government’s economic reset.”

The Sunday Times has issued a damning call for Liz Truss to resign, dubbing her a “pointless prime minister — an empty vessel with no policies or power.”

The newspaper has suggested that PM’s leadership contest rival Rishi Sunak take her place in No 10, and demanded the Tories call an election “after the immediate crisis has passed.”

“Truss has wrecked the Conservative Party’s reputation for fiscal competence and humiliated Britain on the international stage,” The Sunday Times View reads. “Senior Tories must now act in the national interest and remove her from Downing Street as quickly as possible.”

“Britain cannot tolerate a further two years of instability, and it would be more strategically astute for the Conservatives to let Labour confront the economic challenges of the next few years if they are to stand a chance of returning to power in the near future.

“Once in opposition, the Tories must regroup and take time to reflect on how they arrived at the dire position they are in today.”