Liz Truss exit sets off another Tory leadership race - BBC

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By Joshua Nevett

BBC Politics

Liz Truss has resigned as prime minister after 45 days in office marked by turmoil, triggering the second Tory leadership election in four months.

Ms Truss said her successor would be elected by next week after a rebellion by Tory MPs forced her to quit.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said he would not run in the contest but other senior Tories are considering bids.

Tory MPs revolted against Ms Truss after a series of U-turns on her economic plan sapped her of authority.

In a brief speech outside Downing Street, Ms Truss said the Conservative Party had elected her on a mandate to cut taxes and boost economic growth.

But given the situation, Ms Truss said: "I recognise that I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party."

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and other opposition parties called for an immediate general election following Ms Truss's resignation speech.

Ms Truss said she would remain in post until a successor formally takes over as party leader and is appointed prime minister by King Charles III.

Mr Hunt - who was appointed chancellor last week - has said he will not stand in the leadership contest to be the next prime minister, but none of the candidates who stood against Ms Truss in the previous contest have indicated whether they'll be standing.

• A quick guide to Liz Truss
• Liz Truss's resignation speech in full

Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 backbench committee of Conservative MPs, said it would be possible to conclude a leadership ballot by Friday next week.

He said he expected Conservative members to be given a say on who succeeds Ms Truss, but would set out further details later.

And he sidestepped questions about whether one or two candidates would be likely to run, telling reporters: "The party rules say there will be two candidates unless there is only one candidate."

Ms Truss will become the shortest-serving PM in British history when she stands down.

In her speech, Ms Truss said she entered "office at a time of great economic and international instability", as war rages in Ukraine and living costs skyrocket.

The prime minister said her government delivered on providing support for energy bills and reversing a rise in National Insurance, a tax on workers and companies.

But Ms Truss's resignation comes after a period of political and economic turbulence, which forced her government to ditch tax cuts that sent financial markets into a tailspin.

The prime minister sacked close political ally Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor and appointed Mr Hunt as his successor as she attempted to calm the markets.

At Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Ms Truss insisted she was a "fighter, not a quitter" after Labour's leader asked her why she had not resigned.

But more instability followed, when Suella Braverman quit as home secretary and a vote on fracking fell into disarray, with some Tory MPs accused of bullying.

Hard to imagine Tory MPs uniting behind one candidate

Remarks made by 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady - that under current rules, the last two candidates from the leadership contest go to the membership unless there's only one left - suggest there is still a bit of wiggle room.

One of the wheezes that's been discussed in Parliament in the last few days is that MPs could set such a high threshold that only an MP with a lot of support would get there.

It's not certain what's going to happen, to be frank. This is an unprecedented situation.

We should have more details by the end of the day. Sir Graham will be conscious of spelling out how the next leader will be chosen.

There are a lot of MPs who don't want this to go to the Conservative Party membership - they think a new leader needs to be chosen as quickly as possible.

The logistics of trying to consult the membership in only a week are hard to figure out - unless it was a quick online ballot. But even that would be a hard task.

As for MPs, if they're to end up choosing the next leader themselves, how can they coalesce around one person? It seems unlikely, impossible even.

So, we wait for more details on what exactly will happen.

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2022-10-20 14:16:54Z
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Pound rises as Liz Truss announces resignation - BBC

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By Nick Edser

Business reporter

The pound rose against the dollar and government borrowing costs dipped as investors reacted to Prime Minister Liz Truss's resignation.

Sterling jumped to $1.13 at one point before slipping back, but was still higher than at the start of Thursday.

One analyst said the reaction suggested investors were "relieved" by the news, despite a lot of uncertainty remaining.

Business groups said the new prime minister would have to act quickly to restore confidence.

Government borrowing costs rose sharply last month after the government promised huge tax cuts in its mini-budget without saying how it would pay for them.

But these costs fell back after the Bank of England stepped in with an emergency support programme, and after Jeremy Hunt reversed nearly all the mini-budget measures when he became chancellor.

Mr Hunt is due to announce plans for spending and tax on 31 October in his economic plan, which the Treasury confirmed was set to go ahead.

"Although the resignation of Liz Truss as Prime Minister leaves the UK without a leader when it faces huge economic, fiscal and financial market challenges, the markets appear to be relieved," said Paul Dales, chief UK economist at Capital Economics.

He added that her resignation was "a step that needed to happen for the UK government to move further along the path towards restoring credibility in the eyes of the financial markets".

"But more needs to be done and the new prime minister and their chancellor have a big task to navigate the economy through the cost of living crisis, cost of borrowing crisis and the cost of credibility crisis."

Simon French, chief economist at Panmure Gordon, said the market reaction had been "fairly muted", with investors waiting for the "detail of what comes next".

Ms Truss said her successor would be elected in a Tory leadership contest, to be completed in the next week. Her resignation came after a key minister quit and Tory MPs rebelled in a chaotic parliamentary vote on Wednesday.

Mr French said the markets could rally "more aggressively" if a clear favourite emerged for PM. "The sooner you get there the more likely the person who has won will have the support to do the difficult stuff."

• Firms hold off investment due to Tory turmoil

The head of the CBI business lobby group, Tony Danker, said: "The politics of recent weeks have undermined the confidence of people, businesses, markets and global investors in Britain.

"Stability is key. The next prime minister will need to act to restore confidence from day one.

"They will need to deliver a credible fiscal plan for the medium term as soon as possible, and a plan for the long-term growth of our economy."

What are government bonds?

The government can raise money by selling bonds - also known as gilts - to investors. Bonds are a bit like an "I owe you".

Typically, the government agrees to repay the investor on a certain date in the future. In the meantime it pays interest on the loan.

However, the mini-budget hit confidence in bonds, and led to investors demanding a much higher rate of interest in return for investing in them. Some bonds halved in value.

The interest rate - or yield - on UK government bonds for borrowing over a 10-year period climbed above 4% at one point on Thursday morning, but then fell back steadily as speculation grew about Ms Truss's possible departure.

Following the PM's statement, the rate edged higher again to about 3.8%, but still remained below the level seen at the start of the day.

Ahead of the PM's resignation, Bill Blain of Shard Capital had told the BBC that the markets had been "watching in a kind of stunned, open-mouthed horror" at political events.

"The problem we've got is that the last couple of weeks has really destroyed the image of political competency and that's one of the key elements to make any economy work," he said.

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2022-10-20 14:13:53Z
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Liz Truss position seems untenable, says senior Tory MP - BBC

Reuters

By Sam Francis & Brian Wheeler

BBC News

Liz Truss's position as prime minster seems "untenable", a senior backbench Conservative MP has said.

Miriam Cates, an executive member of the influential 1922 committee, said Ms Truss's "position does look difficult if not impossible".

More than a dozen Tory MPs have openly called for Ms Truss to resign after another chaotic day as leader.

Sir Graham Brady, who chairs the 1922 committee, is currently meeting the prime minister.

The 1922 committee sets rules on how the Conservative party elects its leader, and establishes whether the prime minister has the confidence of the party.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's World at One programme, Ms Cates said: "I think it seems as though her position is untenable now.

"Let's see what today holds, but from my point of view it does seem like the confidence of MPs has been lost. I don't know how that would come back really."

Earlier, Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the cabinet still has confidence in Ms Truss.

Under current rules Ms Truss can not be officially challenged in the first 12 months of her premiership - though the 1922 committee executive body could change this.

Ms Cates said: "I do think a leadership contest now would be very disruptive, and it would make it very difficult to make the decisions that we need to make about the economy."

• Follow Live: Crisis for Truss deepens after day of chaos
• MPs allege bullying during chaotic fracking vote
• Suella Braverman's resignation letter in full
• We need a general election now, Labour leader says

Her attempts to reassert her authority were torpedoed by the resignation of the home secretary and farcical scenes after a Commons vote on Wednesday.

There is also speculation that senior figures in the party could agree on a replacement for Ms Truss, which would avoid the need for another Tory leadership contest, or a general election.

But the different factions in the party are split over who should take on the job.

So far 13 Conservative MPs have publicly called for the prime minister to resign.

Prime ministers do meet 1922 committee chairs quite regularly. What is different about this meeting is the climate it is happening in.

Sir Graham Brady will know and understand the mood among Tory MPs, so the fact he is going in to speak to Liz Truss is notable.

The fact that the PM has allegedly requested the meeting could mean that she wants to understand the mood of the party or that she had a message she had to deliver to him - we have to be careful with speculation.

But a fractious mood has existed in the Tory party since the mini-budget was announced and it has accelerated in the past 24 hours.

Where all this ends is the question.

Under questioning on the Today programme, Ms Trevelyan declined to say whether Liz Truss will lead the Conservatives into the next election.

"I want her to continue delivering the really important work we're doing," she said.

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Ms Truss appears determined to fight on - and is attempting to reassert her authority after another day of turmoil, which began when she suspended a senior aid, Jason Stein, who is being investigated for leaking information to the media.

Suella Braverman then resigned as home secretary over data leaks and disagreements over immigration policy. Ms Braverman launched an attack on Ms Truss's leadership in her resignation letter.

The PM appointed Grant Shapps, one of her harshest internal critics, who she had sacked six weeks earlier as transport secretary, as Ms Braverman's replacement.

A Labour attempt to get a new law through Parliament banning fracking sparked havoc in the Tory ranks.

MPs were threatened with expulsion from the party if they did not back the government, despite many of them being vehemently opposed to fracking.

Commons 'shambles'

Just before they were about to vote, climate minister Graham Stuart told them it would not be treated as a confidence vote in Ms Truss, which some took to mean they could back the Labour motion without fear of being sacked.

This led to chaotic scenes as MPs, who wanted to vote in favour of a ban on fracking, were confronted by cabinet ministers ordering to them to vote with the government.

The speaker of the House of Commons has launched an investigation into allegations of bullying and manhandling of MPs in the voting lobbies by Conservative ministers.

For several hours, it was not clear whether the government chief whip Wendy Morton - the woman in charge ensuring MPs vote the way they are told - had resigned or not.

Overnight, the government issued a statement saying Ms Morton remains in her job - and the fracking vote had always been a confidence vote in the PM.

The Tory MPs who voted in favour of Labour's fracking ban motion, which the government defeated, would face "proportionate disciplinary action", the government said.

After the chaotic scenes on Wednesday night, Conservative MP Sir Charles Walker said he was "furious" with the "shambles" - and there was "no coming back" for the government.

Later he added: "I expect the prime minister to resign very soon because she's not up to her job."

Some Conservative MPs said Sir Charles was speaking for all of them.

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2022-10-20 11:39:52Z
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Child sex abuse: Failing to report it should be made illegal - major inquiry - BBC

IICSA

By Tom Symonds

Home Affairs correspondent

Anyone who works with children and does not report child sexual abuse should be prosecuted, the final report of a huge, seven-year inquiry has recommended.

It called the nature and scale of abuse in England and Wales "horrific and deeply disturbing" with children "threatened, beaten and humiliated".

The inquiry began in 2015 and has cost £186m with evidence from 7,000 victims.

Chairwoman Prof Alexis Jay described an "epidemic that leaves thousands of victims in its poisonous wake".

Prof Jay said some victims would never recover from their experiences.

"We heard time and time again how allegations of abuse were ignored, victims were blamed and institutions prioritised their reputations over the protection of children," she said.

"We cannot simply file it away and consider it a historical aberration when so much of what we learned suggests it is an ever growing problem exacerbated by current and future threat of the internet."

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The inquiry: Key facts

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal by then Home Secretary Theresa May.

Hundreds of people came forward after the presenter's death in 2011 to say he had abused them as children.

The public inquiry was given a broad remit to investigate historical allegations of child abuse, dating back to the 1950s, as well as claims that authorities, including the police, failed to properly investigate these allegations.

About 7,000 victims of abuse have provided testimonies and 725 people gave evidence over 325 days of public hearings, contributing to 15 investigations and dozens of reports.

"The deviousness and cruelty of perpetrators was limitless," says the report.

It adds that institutions too often "prioritised their personal and institutional reputations above the welfare of those they were duty bound to protect.

"Blame was frequently assigned to the victims who were treated as if they were unworthy of protection."

Some institutions did not respond at all to the inquiry's investigations, whilst others merely offered "insincere apologies and inadequate provision of support and counselling".

The inquiry has been criticised for focusing too much on past events, but IICSA's report said that online abuse had increased in recent years and that there were many lessons for modern organisations to learn.

"Child protection must be given a much greater priority in public life," it concludes.

The inquiry says its 20 key recommendations need to be accepted by government as a "matter of urgency".

These include a new law placing a duty to report child abuse on anyone who witnessed it or was told about it by children or perpetrators.

Not doing so would result in a criminal offence unless the behaviour was consensual and non-abusive between young people of similar ages.

This would cover "anyone working with children", an inquiry official said, as defined under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

There is currently no legal, criminal requirement to report child sexual abuse, although people may be required to under the terms of their employment or codes of conduct. Wales has a statutory duty to report but no sanction for not doing so.

The recommendation of mandatory reporting, will be widely welcomed by campaigners who say it is critical to preventing institutions covering up abuse to protect their reputations.

The inquiry also argues for new child protection authorities for England and Wales - and a new, single scheme for compensating victims of abuse.

It dismissed concerns that victims might "lie for money" as "misplaced and offensive" and said victims found current legal systems "hostile, baffling and futile" and often gave up trying to claim.

The inquiry demanded that the government require providers of internet search services and social networks to pre screen material for child abuse, before it is uploaded.

• Call to make boarding schools report abuse claims

The inquiry's final, over-arching report was published on Thursday. It has already published reports highlighting the scale of abuse across a range of institutions, including religious organisations, politics, children's homes and schools.

It also highlights "undue deference of police, prosecutors and political parties" towards prominent individuals accused of abuse.

The Roman Catholic church presided over a "sorry history of child sexual abuse where abusive priests and members of religious orders preyed on children for prolonged periods of time", says the report.

Between 1970 and 2015, there were 3,000 complaints and 133 convictions. Millions were paid in compensation to victims.

In the Church of England there were 390 convictions dating back to the 1940s.

In other religions there had been "significant barriers to effective reporting of child sexual abuse, including victim blaming and notions of shame and honour."

The inquiry examined claims of abuse at children's homes including, Cambridge House and Knowl View, in Rochdale.

In Nottinghamshire children's homes there were 350 complainants about abuse by staff.

Another massive abuse scandal centred on Lambeth Council in south London where the inquiry said it was "hard to comprehend the cruelty and sexual abuse inflicted on children".

The inquiry has identified particular concerns about boarding schools and some specialist schools, such as those teaching music and highlights "deeply distressing cases" where the school's was seen as more important than victims.

When the inquiry began there were fervent rumours that a "Westminster paedophile ring" had abused children. IICSA uncovered no evidence of that, despite finding many "individual perpetrators".

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2022-10-20 11:01:48Z
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Liz Truss says she's 'a fighter not a quitter' at bruising PMQs — follow latest - The Times

Liz Truss claimed she was a “fighter not a quitter” at a bruising prime minister’s questions as she confirmed her commitment to the triple lock on pensions.

Sir Keir Starmer declared the Conservative Party an “opposition in waiting” in touchy exchanges that were received in near-silence from the Tories sitting behind Truss.

The prime minister repeated from the dispatch box her apology to the British people but accused Labour of not grasping “economic reality”.

After No 10 said yesterday the government may not increase pensions in line with inflation, Truss told MPs: “I’ve been clear we are protecting the triple lock on pensions.”

In her first answer at PMQs, Truss told MPs: “I have been very clear that I am sorry and that I have

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2022-10-19 11:40:00Z
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Cost of living fears grow as inflation returns to 40-year high - BBC

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By Kevin Peachey

Cost of living correspondent

The rate at which prices rose in September has returned to a 40-year high as a BBC survey uncovers growing concern about the squeeze on finances.

The price of cereals, milk and cheese all went up along with energy bills and transport costs.

Some 85% of those asked are now worried about the rising cost of living, up from 69% in a similar poll in January.

As a result, nine in 10 people are trying to save money by delaying putting the heating on.

The rising cost of food, fuel and energy dominate fears about rising costs, the survey of 4,132 shows.

Almost half of people (47%) polled in the Savanta Comres survey for the BBC said that energy bills were the most significant increase in cost seen by their household.

Nearly nine in 10 of those asked were turning lights off to save money in the last week, as well as turning electrical goods off standby.

The survey was conducted earlier this month before Chancellor Jeremy Hunt reversed some tax cuts, said support on energy bills would be limited for some, and warned of further government spending cuts.

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But more than half of those polled (56%) expect their financial position to worsen in the next six months. It was 30% in January.

Two-thirds of renters who were asked said it had been difficult to pay for essential costs in the last six months. A similar proportion of everyone surveyed said that government support was insufficient to help people with the rising cost of living.

The cost of living rose by 10.1% in the 12 months to September - the fastest rate in 40 years - driven by sharp price rises in energy and food costs.

Food and energy prices have been going up around the world following Russia's invasion of Ukraine which has disrupted production and exports, as well as pushing up prices at supermarket tills.

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September's inflation figures are usually used to calculate next April's rise in the state pension in the UK and the increase in some benefits. It is unclear if the government still intends to stick to this policy or cut down on spending by increasing payments by a lower level by linking the increase to wages instead.

Over half (52%) of UK adults say it has already been difficult for their household to pay essential household costs in the last six months.

People are changing their spending habits to help them cope, cutting back on clothes spending for themselves and their children, taking fewer day trips as well as travelling less to meet up with family or friends, the BBC survey shows.

People are also putting off big purchases such as buying a new car, sofa or TV or renovating their homes.

Among UK adults worried about the cost of living, two thirds have also said this is having a negative effect on their mental health.

Naomi Naylor from Durham is in her of third year of studying to be a paramedic at the University of Sunderland. She worries about the impact higher petrol costs will have on her finances.

Three-quarters of workers in the North East normally commute to work by car, so rising fuel prices can really hit personal finances.

"I commute in and out every day, it's cheaper not paying for accommodation. Petrol is my biggest outlay, it's costing me more than it used to."

The 21-year old says she and most of her friends want to stay around this area, but there's also competition for graduate paramedic jobs, which means some may need to look further afield for work.

This could push up their travel costs even more, adding to her concerns.

In Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's emergency announcement on Monday to cut back government spending, the help to limit energy bills rises for households was cut back from two years to six months.

The Treasury will review support given from April, but Mr Hunt said there would be "a new approach" targeting those in the most need.

A spokesman for the Treasury said the government had reversed the rise in National Insurance and made changes to help people on universal credit.

"Countries around the world are facing rising costs, driven by Putin's illegal war in Ukraine, and we know this is affecting people here in the UK," he said.

"That is why we have taken decisive actions to hold down bills this winter through the Energy Price Guarantee and provided at least £1,200 of additional cost-of-living support to eight million of the most vulnerable households."

What is your experience of the cost of living crisis? What are your questions about it? Email your stories and questions to: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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Make Sense of Food Prices

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2022-10-19 10:27:25Z
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