Liz Truss’ ill-fated tenure as Britain’s prime minister was plunged into further chaos on Wednesday when her home secretary resigned seven weeks into her term, and as allegations emerged of pandemonium and “bullying” during a vote on the same day.
Allegations emerged on Wednesday that some lawmakers from the ruling Conservative Party were physically dragged to vote with the government against a ban on fracking for shale gas.
The disorderly scenes come amid mounting pressure on the embattled leader to step down. Her time in Downing Street has been spectacularly derailed by a radical fiscal agenda, which Truss has been forced to abandon and apologize for.
Earlier on Wednesday, Suella Braverman said she was resigning as Home Secretary over her use of a personal email address that breached ministerial rules.
Her resignation letter was also scathing of the Truss leadership and showed deep cracks at the heart of her government.
“The business of government is based on people accepting responsibility for their mistakes. Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see we’ve made them, and hoping things turn out right is not serious politics,” Braverman wrote in a thinly veiled critique of Truss’s many turns. on taxes and public spending.
“I have concerns about the direction of this administration,” Braverman said. “Not only have we broken key commitments we made to our constituents, I have serious concerns about this government’s commitment to delivering on its manifesto commitments.”
Truss accepted Braverman’s resignation, saying it was “important to uphold the ministerial code and maintain cabinet confidentiality,” she said in a letter.
Hours later, politicians shared Twitter accounts of angry scenes of shouting and brawling in the British parliament.
Government whips, who enforce party discipline and tell the party how to vote, earlier today barred the opposition Labor Party from a vote of confidence in the government.
If Conservative lawmakers voted against the government they would “lose the whip” and effectively be expelled from the party.
Opposition Labor MP Anna McMorrin tweeted that she saw a Tory MP “in tears” being “dragged into the lobby to vote against our motion to continue the fracking ban”.
Another MP, David Linden, called it “amazing”, saying in a tweet that he “just watched the Deputy Prime Minister basically pick up a reluctant Tory MP and march him into the Government lobby”.
Chris Bryant, former Labor Secretary and Chair of the Parliamentary Standards Committee, called on the Commons Deputy Speaker to launch an inquiry into the scenes “outside the ‘no’ lobby entrance earlier”.
He told Parliament that he saw lawmakers being “physically manhandled” and “bullied” in the voter lobby.
Labor lawmaker Ian Murray described it as “open warfare”, where whips were seen “screaming at the Tories. They are done and have to call a general election. Two Tory whips are dragging people along. Shocking,” he said in a tweet.
When asked about these claims on Sky News, Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg denied them.
“I think it’s wrong to call it bullying,” he said. “I heard a person yelling and using verbiage as he walked in. He said everyone should go vote and he said it loudly. But he didn’t tell anyone in particular. He told the assembled crowd,” added Rees-Mogg.
Truss, meanwhile, is at risk of becoming Britain’s shortest-serving leader, with some of her lawmakers calling for her to step down and polls pointing to an electoral wipeout for her Conservative Party.
Fracking is unpopular among many Conservative constituencies and in 2019, the party’s manifesto promised not to lift England’s ban unless it can be scientifically proven to be “safe”. Truss made this commitment when he became prime minister.
Grant Shapps has been appointed as Braverman’s replacement at the Home Office, Downing Street said on Wednesday.
The lawmaker, who was transport secretary under former prime minister Boris Johnson, recently questioned Truss’ longevity earlier this week during a podcast recording with comedian Matt Ford, saying Truss had an “Everest to climb” to remain in power, according to PA Media. .
“What he has to do is kind of put in the eye of a needle with the lights off,” Shapps said.
Braverman’s resignation comes five days after Truss sacked her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, over the mini-budget, which triggered a collapse in the value of the pound and forced the Bank of England to step in to calm markets.
And it will result in even greater turnover at the heart of the British government. Truss will soon appoint the UK’s third home secretary in eight weeks, to accompany his fourth finance minister in four months.
Several British Conservative MPs told CNN they had “reservations” that the reason for Braverman’s resignation was limited to what she described in her letter — sending a draft ministerial statement from her personal email — and wondered if it was a resignation offense.
One lawmaker called the official version of events “nonsense,” another called it “very unusual, if true.”
Braverman contested the Conservative Party leadership campaign over the summer, which Truss eventually won. A rising star of the party’s right wing, Braverman has repeatedly pledged to reduce illegal immigration to Britain and has frequently stirred up culture war issues.
On Tuesday, during a debate on a public order bill in Parliament, he criticized “the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokeratti” for leading climate protests that have blocked Britain’s streets in recent months.
On Wednesday, the new home secretary told reporters he was ready to work to keep the British people safe despite a “turbulent time” for the British government.
“I accept that the government has obviously had a very difficult time,” Shapps said, adding that the UK’s new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, had done a “wonderful job of sorting out issues related to this mini-budget”.
