Bullying, Tears and Dismissal: British Political Chaos on 5 Points US Judge: Trump Made False Statements on Election Fraud in Court

Chapter 1: The initial situation

It was initially believed that Prime Minister Liz Truss’s government had stabilized somewhat after the appointment of Jeremy Hunt as new finance minister and that it would get through Wednesday without further setbacks. Truss also behaved defiantly during the weekly afternoon MPs question time and, as on the previous days, clearly refused to resign.

In the weeks before that, Truss, along with Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng, who was later fired, had made questionable decisions and caused financial chaos. After Kwarteng was forced to leave, Truss appointed Jeremy Hunt as the new Treasury Secretary. This reversed almost all the changes made last Monday to stabilize the UK economy.

Chapter 2: The Resignation of Suella Braverman

By Wednesday afternoon, however, the supposed calm had already passed. Home Secretary Suella Braverman has resigned. Braverman has officially resigned for violating government privacy rules. According to the BBC, she sent a government document to a person who should not have received it. In her letter of resignation, Braverman also states that she “made a technical error”.

However, there are several indications that Braverman did not resign from office of his own free will, but that this is due to rather pronounced differences of opinion. An indication: the former interior minister accused the government of breaking “important promises”. She is also deeply concerned that the government’s program could halt large-scale illegal migration – a major concern of Braverman, who belongs to the far-right wing of the Tories.

With Braverman’s resignation, Truss lost the next member of government – just a week after Treasury Secretary Kwarteng was forced to resign. Bravermann was succeeded by Grant Shapps – ironically, Truss had fired him as Secretary of State for Transport a few weeks ago.

Chapter 3: The Fracking Voice in Parliament

The next act on Chaos Wednesday followed immediately. Parliament is about to vote on a ban on fracking as a method of oil extraction. The opposition party PvdA had submitted a corresponding application. According to the BBC, many conservatives are also against fracking. However, because the government had recently declared this vote a confidence vote, they voted against it anyway. If they had not sided with the government, they may have been expelled from the group, the BBC estimates.

The government supporters were apparently anything but prudish. Several MPs, including Conservatives, reported being “physically attacked” in the run-up to the vote.

Labor MP Anna McMorrin wrote on Twitter that she had seen a Conservative MP burst into tears over the harsh treatment:

Shortly before the vote, the government came back and stated that the vote is not a confidence vote. This, in turn, created further problems in their own ranks (see Chapter 4).

As a result, the voting itself was not without background noise. Labor MP Chris Bryant accused Conservative MPs of having been pushed in a certain direction, sometimes with shouts and bickering, and thus unable to vote freely and unhindered. In the end, the Labor Party movement was clearly rejected – but the result seemed to have been sidelined in all fanfare anyway.

Chapter 4: The presumed dismissal in the group leadership

But that wasn’t the end of the day of horror in Parliament: According to consistent reports, Wendy Morton, the Chief Whip in charge of enforcing group discipline, and her deputy Craig Whittaker were initially moved out of frustration at the government’s turnaround on the issue. or the vote counts as a confidence vote. After a few hours, however, it turned out that both would remain at their posts.

Chapter 5: The Aftermath of Chaos Day

The sky for Liz Truss is getting thinner and thinner. With the absolute chaos on Wednesday, she lost further acceptance in parliament. Even in the Brexit negotiations under Theresa May, the British Parliament was not as chaotic as it is now.

The reactions of various MPs were also profound. Conservative Charles Walker told the BBC it was a “shattered mess” and that it was a “disgrace”. “I’ve honestly never seen anything like tonight in my 17 years in parliament,” he said, visibly angry. He added that there is now “no turning back” for the government.

The call for the resignation of the Truss government is also growing louder and more energetic from the population. The hashtag #TrussMustGo, which has been circulating for days, gained even more momentum on Twitter.

The argument of the remaining Truss supporters is that it is difficult to find a suitable successor in such a short time. In fact, that’s probably the only reason Truss hasn’t certainly been pressured to step down. (against)

With material from the news agencies SDA and DPA.