Tories are ‘looking for reassurance’ from Liz Truss, says Andrew Bridgen MP

TORIES are looking to Liz Truss for reassurance amid the turmoil over her government’s mini budget, according to the Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen.

He told GB News: “Clearly the polls have rattled the Conservative Party and when you start seeing polls with the Labour Party, 30 points ahead there’s a feeling that the damage done to the party is self-inflicted.

“Members of Parliament, and our members out in the country, are looking for reassurance. I think the Prime Minister realises her position. So she’s offered a lot of consultation with regard to what’s going to be in the next economic statement by the Chancellor.

“There’ll be a lot of consultation with backbenchers next week to ensure that whatever measures are in there, that the Prime Minister can actually get them through Parliament.”

“I think it’s about presentation as well. The mini Budget was rushed out. There wasn’t a lot of consultation at all with colleagues and clearly it spooks the market.

“The problem we’re in is we’ve got probably two years [before] the next general election, we’ve got a new very keen Prime Minister who’s who wants to see economic growth, but at the same time we’re dealing with inflation and the Bank of England’s only tool to deal with that is putting up interest rates.

“I’m really not sure how inflation is driven by commodity prices, mostly energy, oil and gas prices, because of what Putin has done in Ukraine. Or how putting up someone’s mortgage payments, apart from throwing us into a recession and depressing demand for all goods, is actually going to sort out this inflation.

“I think the Government, the Treasury, needs to work in lockstep with the Bank of England. I think we’d all welcome tax cuts, but I think they need to deal with the threat of inflation first.

“That’s what Kwasi Kwarteng is going to outline at the end of this month, and he’s got to reassure the markets that there’s not going to be completely unfunded tax cuts.”

Commenting on Truss’ first weeks in post, Tory MP Lee Anderson told GB News: “Well, it’s been a bumpy start. But I was at the 1922 meeting, and it was anything but hostile. I think the media is trying to cause a bit of a stir again.

“Yes, colleagues raised relevant questions, challenging questions to the Prime Minister, she answered them pretty well. I think she said she’s prepared to listen to all of us.

“She’s going to have us in over the next few weeks to listen to us all before any big decisions are made. I think that’s the right thing to do.

“Look, I’m not getting my pitchfork out. I think the media are still walking around with their chests pumped out thinking they’ve had their hand in getting rid of one Prime Minister and now they’re out again already and trying to have a go with the current prime minister.

“I think this is not the time to start having these arguments. I think we should get behind her to give her time to settle into the role.”

Asked to comment on MP Robert Halfon’s comment that Liz Truss has destroyed ten years of government, he said: “The language that Robert used was a little bit colourful, but he made a point and that’s up to Robert to make that point.

“That was one MP, there’s about 360 of us, one MP making that point, which is up to Robert, he made some good points as well.

“I was in the room…he’s just picking up on one comment from a couple of people. And by the way, let’s be honest, some of these people that were making comments didn’t actually back Liz to start off with but we should get behind the leader now.

“We’ve had the ballot, we’ve got the result, we’ve got a new Prime Minister, get behind it, give her a chance to settle in. Yes, there’s going to be a few bumps in the road as you settle into the role but we can’t keep swapping Prime Ministers every five minutes.”

“Not sure I’m the right person to be advising the Prime Minister on economic policy, but what I would say is, any policy has got to be fair, it’s got to be fair to everybody in the country. But we made the decision to change the way – we backtracked on the 40% income tax, that that was the right thing to do, we all knew that.

“Nobody was asking me in my inbox on 150 grand a year to cut their income tax, far from it. We have to be seen as a fair and caring government. Over the past two or three years, this Government has wrapped its arms around the businesses and people of this country.

“We seem to forget now what we went through with Covid, about 11 million jobs we saved, furlough, the hundreds of thousands of businesses – people tend to forget the good work we’ve done, they always look forward and rightly so, we should be looking forward.

“Liz always said that when you became if she became PM, that she would introduce a Budget straightaway to help the most vulnerable and I think what people actually did, led by the media, just a few weeks back, they actually ignored 90%-95% of that mini budget which was good stuff to help people with their energy and their and their soaring bills for this winter, so let’s get behind her.”