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Why the Tories are dismantling their own Prime Minister

It's just before midnight when Grant Shapps shows up at the Spectator party in Birmingham.

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Why the Tories are dismantling their own Prime Minister

It's just before midnight when Grant Shapps shows up at the Spectator party in Birmingham. With a broad grin, the newly ousted Minister of Transport positions himself in the middle of the hall in which the central body of the British Conservatives is celebrating its traditional champagne reception at the party conference. And Shapps cheerfully answers reporter questions.

A few meters away, parliamentary colleague Michael Gove is holding court, casually leaning against a wall. Both have long parliamentary and ministerial careers, which the new Prime Minister Liz Truss put to an end in early September. Which is why the two, and not just these two, are now practicing a new discipline – as snipers. Target of the attacks: Truss, their own head of government.

In this stuffy hotel room, on thick carpets, between ministers, power brokers and major donors, you can take the temperature of the Tories, so to speak. And if it were a human body, then it would not be far from 42 degrees, i.e. collapse. In the past 13 years of government, the party has already had to summon four prime ministers.

She has experienced crises, none of which have really been overcome: Brexit, Covid, now the price explosion as a result of the Ukraine war. In view of all this, a rapprochement would be expected. The Birmingham convention was meant to be a belated coronation Mass for Truss, who has been in office since September 6th. Instead, the British Conservatives are falling upon each other as if Rome's last days had arrived.

The obvious reason is Truss's "mini budget" presented two weeks ago, which combines falling taxes with more debt and triggered an earthquake. The pound fell to record lows as government bond costs soared. The Bank of England announced that it intends to spend the equivalent of 74 billion euros on emergency purchases. Financiers are raising interest rates on home loans, which is why millions of Britons are now having to pay significantly more for their mortgages.

With British bookmakers, fewer and fewer customers are betting that Truss is still living at 10 Downing Street at Christmas. Shapps, a key figure in the cabinet and parliamentary group under Truss's predecessor Boris Johnson, gave the new leader even less time at the party conference. "The next ten days are crucial," he said on all channels, adding cynically: "I'll cheer for them!"

Party colleague Gove also shoots at Truss. Gove explained in front of a large audience that she was jeopardizing the electoral success of her predecessor Johnson. A particularly perfidious attack, which Truss always presents as a loyal admirer of the deposed prime minister. When he won in 2019, Johnson lured millions of traditional Labor voters to the Conservatives, creating the Tories' large majority in Parliament. All of that is now at stake.

There are many reasons why the Tories' polls plummeted barely four weeks after the new boss took office. The communication of the "mini-budget" was so catastrophic that Truss made a U-turn at the party congress and withdrew the announced abolition of the top tax rate. Then her Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, had to accept that he had to bring forward the financial forecast announced for the end of November in order to calm the markets and voters.

Chaos instead of competence is the impression. But the reasons for the Tories' downfall go far beyond the current government. "The new cabinet lacks experience," says one of the few long-serving ministers behind closed doors. When forming her team, Truss relied more on loyalty than on competence. "And we've been in power for more than 12 years," the man adds. He sounds exhausted.

Meanwhile, Truss tries to exude energy. After the party conference, she wants to prove that she can implement her "True Blue" credo and realize the true values ​​of the Conservatives, despite all the challenges and above all against the "anti-growth coalition", as the opposition parties call it.

Truss wants to ignite a boom by scrapping regulations and taxes, unleashing the free market and entrepreneurship. The Labor Party, meanwhile, looks on relaxed. Understandable, the polls now see the left in double digits. The governing conservatives, on the other hand, appear as if they have already come to terms with the foreseeable end of their power.

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