British Conservative lawmaker Sheryll Murray said on Thursday she had submitted a letter of no confidence in Prime Minister Liz Truss.
“I had high hopes for Liz Truss but after what happened last night her position has become untenable and I have submitted a letter to Sir Graham Brady,” Murray said on Twitter.
Brady chairs the 1922 Committee of Conservative lawmakers that sets the rules for selecting and changing the party’s leader
Truss clings to power as chaos in Westminster deepens
Truss struggled to retain a grip on power on Thursday, a day after a second top minister quit and rowing and jostling broke out among her lawmakers in parliament in a dramatic breakdown of unity and discipline.
Six weeks into the job, Truss has been buffeted by a bond market rout, suffered the lowest approval ratings of a British leader in decades, abandoned almost all of her policy programme and has now lost her interior minister who quit on Wednesday, less than a week after she fired her finance minister.
Lawmakers openly argued in parliament on Wednesday amid confusion over whether a vote on fracking was a confidence vote in her administration.
There were reports “later contradicted” that the government’s chief whip, who is in charge of parliamentary enforcer, had resigned.
In a sign of the chaos, Downing Street issued a statement at 1:33 am to say the prime minister had “full confidence” in the chief whip and her deputy.
“The whips will now be speaking to Conservative MPs who failed to support the government,” a government spokesperson said. “Those without a reasonable excuse for failing to vote with the government can expect proportionate disciplinary action.”
Truss has been fighting for her political survival since September 23 when her finance minister at the time, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced a “mini-budget” of vast, unfunded tax cuts that sent shockwaves through financial markets.
