Liz Truss’s supporters had hoped this year’s Conservative party conference would mark a moment of triumph for the new leader. Instead it opened with her arch-nemesis lobbing a hand grenade in her direction. Step forward, Michael Gove.
Appearing on a panel on Laura Kuenssberg’s show this morning, Gove voiced his concerns with Truss’s economic plan which has spooked the markets. He criticised ‘the sheer risk of using borrowed money to fund tax cuts’ as well as the the decision to cut the 45p rate for top earners as ‘a display of the wrong values’.
When pressed on whether that meant he would not vote for the measures, Gove replied:
So, what is Gove up to?
‘I don’t believe it’s right’
It comes as party chairman Jake Berry said votes for the measures announced in the fiscal event would be treated as a confidence vote. That would mean that any Tory MP who opposed them would lose the whip:
‘That is a decision for the chief whip but as far as I’m concerned, yes’
Battle lines are being drawn.
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