Conservative Party Conference continued. Suella Braverman accused rebel MPs of staging a “coup” to force the Government to abandon its plan to abolish the 45p top rate of income tax. She also suggested that net annual migration should come down to the tens of thousands in the long term, in a challenge to Boris Johnson and Priti Patel.
Meanwhile, increasing pressure piled on Liz Truss to ensure benefits would rise in line with prices. Both Iain Duncan Smith, the former Work and Pensions Secretary and party leader, and Penny Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons, who said doing so “made sense” and ensured “people can pay their bills”.
In an article for The Daily Telegraph, Truss suggested abolishing the 45p rate “was a tiny part of the plan” and “had become an unnecessary distraction”. She told readers that as Conservatives “we have fallen out of the habit of making Conservative arguments” and that “we need to start making those arguments from first principles and bring the British people with us”.
Reports suggested Downing Street had “squashed” Jacob-Rees-Mogg’s plans to repeal the 48 hour working week. The Home Secretary pledged to prevent human rights laws from “interfering” with the UK’s ability to deport illegal migrants. Nadine Dorries called for a general election because, amongst other things, the sale of Channel 4 appeared to have been stopped.
With acknowledgments to Harry Cole and James Heale‘s Out of the Blue: the Inside Story of the Unexpected Rise and Rapid Fall of Liz Truss