British Prime Minister Truss under heavy fire – but refuses to resign Severe turbulence on Madrid-Buenos Aires flight – 12 injured

British Prime Minister Liz Truss continues to refuse to resign despite the failure of her tax policy and disastrous polls.

“I am a fighter, not a shirker,” the Conservative head of government said during weekly Question Time in the House of Commons in London on Wednesday. The 47-year-old came under heavy pressure during the meeting. Several opposition politicians directly called on her to resign.

For the first time since the humiliating turnaround in her tax policy and the shortening of the government’s energy ceiling, Truss had to answer questions from MPs. She deserved violent ridicule and malice. Among other things, when she called on opposition leader Keir Starmer of the Labor Party to “face the economic reality”.

It was she who unleashed chaos in the financial markets with the announcement of radical tax breaks. Some of her words were drowned out by the booing and berating of the opposition.

Truss refuted allegations that she had already crashed the country’s economy in just six weeks in office by stating that the economic situation was generally difficult. She also received angry bickering from the opposition benches for this.

It wasn’t until Monday that their new Treasury Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, withdrew nearly all parts of the recently announced radical tax cuts. His predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng had to leave his chair last week – according to many observers – to save the office of prime minister. However, it is not yet clear whether this has been successful.

Opposition leader Starmer had an easy hand during Question Time: one after the other he listed the abandoned elements of Truss’s tax policy, where Labor MPs “gone!” (away) screamed. “They’re all gone, why is she still here?” Starmer yelled at Truss.

In an effort to regain some authority, the prime minister surprisingly dismissed reports that she wanted to remove the guarantee of pension increases. Treasury Secretary Hunt recently announced cuts in government spending, in addition to withdrawing tax breaks, and emphasized that there were no taboos. This is despite Truss promising last week that there would be “absolutely” no austerity measures.

The head of government, who had been heavily on the defensive, was spared criticism from her own ranks. However, Truss reportedly held a confidence vote internally on a Labor Party motion on fracking later Wednesday. Those who do not adhere to the group discipline are reportedly excluded. Truss had lifted a moratorium on the controversial method of power generation to make Britain less dependent on gas imports.

Speculation that Truss could have bought the hardline Brexit hardliners’ allegiance to Brussels in the Northern Ireland status dispute appeared to be confirmed. At the request of an MP, Truss assured her that she would abide by the letter of a bill that would undermine the agreement known as the Northern Ireland Protocol to the Brexit Treaty.

Question time seemed to have come to a close for Truss. But how precarious their situation is is also apparent from a side episode. Shortly before Question Time began, it was announced that Jason Stein, their head of communications, had been suspended and disciplinary proceedings had been initiated against him.

He had reportedly made disparaging remarks to journalists about a former minister. He allegedly threatened to raise the issue during Question Time in Parliament. Truss didn’t want to risk that. (aeg/sda/dpa)