Liz Truss: Jamie Wallis asks PM to resign over 'basic errors'

Jamie Wallis published his letter to Liz Truss on Twitter criticising her performance as prime minister

A Welsh MP has written to Prime Minister Liz Truss calling on her to resign.

Bridgend MP Jamie Wallis accused her of "very basic and avoidable errors" over the government's mini-budget and her sacking of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

It comes after Wales Office minister David TC Davies apologised for "all of the problems" and "feeling of instability" caused by the mini-budget.

Mr Wallis is the third Tory MP to publicly call on Ms Truss to resign.

Former minister Crispin Blunt was the first, telling Channel 4 "the game is up and it's now a question as to how the succession is managed".

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Then later on Sunday, Andrew Bridgen became the second, telling the Daily Telegraph: "We cannot carry on like this. Our country, its people and our party deserve better."

In Mr Wallis' letter to Ms Truss, he said she had "undermined Britain's economic credibility and fractured our party irreparably".

He added: "Mistakes can be undone, and as one united team I believe we can achieve almost anything. However, while you are leader, I no longer believe this is possible."

Liz Truss has held talks with her new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt over the weekend about a new budget

In the letter, shared on Twitter, Mr Wallis also accused the prime minister of choosing her supporters for key roles in the cabinet over the most experienced.

Jeremy Hunt was appointed as chancellor on Friday after Mr Kwarteng was sacked following a major U-turn over the mini-budget.

On Sunday, he urged the party to unite behind Ms Truss, as the pair held crunch talks to thrash out plans on tax and spending.

Despite overseeing a dramatic change in Ms Truss's flagship policy, Mr Hunt insisted "the prime minister's in charge" and denied media speculation that he had become the most powerful member of government.

"She's listened. She's changed. She's been willing to do that most difficult thing in politics, which is to change tack," he said in an interview with the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg.

Earlier, Monmouth MP Mr Davies accused fellow Conservative MPs of "undermining" Ms Truss with anonymous "whispering" to the media.

The Monmouth MP said some did not accept losing the argument over the party leadership and "want to pick fights".

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Mr Davies, the parliamentary under-secretary at the Wales Office, told BBC Radio Wales Sunday Supplement the issues began with the government trying to find ways to pay for an energy price cap to halt rising costs.

"I'm sorry for all of the problems that it's caused," he said.

"I understand that there's a feeling of instability at the moment and people are nervous. I absolutely get that.

"The chancellor has gone partly as a result of that mini-budget and we're going to have to change a few things in order to make sure it continues.

"But my message, actually, as much as anything else, is to other Conservative MPs: it's just let's get on with the job," he said.

"There are millions of people and businesses out there who need that energy guarantee, who need to know that they're going to be able to pay their bills.

'Endless brickbats'

"And it doesn't always help anyone if people start getting involved in unattributed briefings to the press."

He added: "We want a stable economy and we want to do the right thing for people and businesses in this country.

David TC Davies: "Some of the endless brickbats that have been thrown around aren't terribly helpful"

"And I sometimes think that some of the endless brickbats that are being thrown around aren't terribly helpful."

Asked if Ms Truss had not delivered stability to the country, Mr Davies said: "You could argue that Liz Truss hasn't done it, but one could also argue that some people in the Conservative Party have done the undermining".

'I don't want the alternative'

Referring to party leadership campaigns, he said "unfortunately there might be a small number of MPs who can't accept sometimes when they are on the losing side of an argument and want to pick fights.

"I haven't always backed all of the people who've ended up as leaders of the Conservative Party. But I look at it and I say I'm a Conservative and I believe in Conservative values and therefore whoever ends up there I'm going to back them because I don't want the alternative.

"And I think there may be a few of my colleagues who want to dwell on that".

Mr Davies said: "Any briefings I give are on air and on the radio like this. If any of my colleagues feel particularly strongly about something they should go out and say it in person on the radio and the telly and put their name to it.

"What I really find difficult is people who are whispering things to the press and we don't know who they are."

'Poor start' for premiership

Stephen Crabb: "There will need to be some difficult discussions about how we manage our finances as a nation"

Former Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb, the Conservative MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire, said after a "very difficult, poor start", the "next few weeks are going to be crucial" for Ms Truss's premiership.

He said that if she returned to "a broad-based, balanced, pragmatic political agenda", there was "no reason she shouldn't be able to carry on through 'til 2024".

"The immediate challenge, though, is to get us through a very difficult winter, address the challenge of high energy costs, get the country through that focus on protecting, particularly people at the lowest end of the income chain - people on social security, pensioners.

"Beyond that, there will need to be some difficult discussions about how we manage our finances as a nation," he told BBC Politics Wales.

'Terrible choices to make'

Welsh government budget over next three years estimated to be worth £4bn less due to inflation, Vaughan Gething says

Meanwhile, Wales' Labour Economy Minister Vaughan Gething said the Welsh government was facing "terrible choices to make with less money" with its budget over the next three years already estimated to be worth £4bn less than originally planned as a result of inflation.

Asked if the Welsh government would consider using its own partial income tax powers to try to plug some of the gaps, Mr Gething replied: "We'll consider the income tax position in the round with all our other budget choices and we don't have any kind of certainty about the context in which we'll be making those choices."

Welsh teachers, NHS staff, ambulance staff and nurses are all threatening to go on strike in their calls for better pay offers from the Welsh government.

Mr Gething said the government "simply can't provide" an inflation-matching pay rise for public sector workers.

He went on to say that it was "entirely possible that there will be significant industrial action" in Wales over the winter months.

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