Liz Truss: How could the prime minister be replaced?
By Tom Edgington
BBC News
Having sacked her chancellor and U-turned on a series of key measures in her government’s mini-budget, a number of Conservative MPs have called for the removal of Liz Truss as party leader.
New chancellor Jeremy Hunt has warned against ousting the PM, but what are the ways Tory MPs could force Ms Truss to step down?
Party pressure
Either the Cabinet – made up of senior members of the government – or a large group of Tory MPs could apply political pressure by telling the PM she has lost their confidence and needs to go.
Some Tory backbenchers, including Crispin Blunt and Jamie Wallis, have publicly called on Ms Truss to stand down.
Political pressure forced Margaret Thatcher to resign in 1990, despite having defeated Michael Heseltine in the first round of a leadership challenge. Mrs Thatcher stood down after her Cabinet refused to back her in the second round.
Boris Johnson – Ms Truss’s predecessor – resigned following a mass revolt by ministers over his leadership in July. The resignation came a month after Mr Johnson had survived a confidence vote.
A confidence vote
Each political party has its own rules on leadership challenges.
In the Conservatives’ case, at least 15% of sitting Tory MPs have to write a letter saying they no longer have confidence in the party leader.
The 15% threshold currently works out as 54 MPs.
Letters of no confidence are sent to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee – the organisation representing all backbench Conservative MPs. These are MPs that are not government ministers.
However, under the 1922 committee’s current rules a new leader cannot be challenged in their first year.
So unless the rules are changed, Ms Truss could not be removed this way.
Any rule change would have to be agreed by the executive committee of the 1922.
If they were changed – and the threshold was reached – a vote of no confidence in the sitting leader would then be held. This vote is usually organised very quickly, with the leader requiring a majority of Tory MPs taking part to back them in order to carry on.
- Hunt warns Tory MPs against ousting PM
- What was in the mini-budget and what has changed?
- Who is in charge? Liz Truss or Jeremy Hunt?
A motion of no confidence
A motion of no confidence is a vote where all MPs – not just Conservatives – get to vote on whether they have confidence in the government to continue.
If Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer introduced this motion, convention means that the government would need to provide time for a debate and a vote in Parliament.
In order to pass, the motion needs just one more MP voting in favour than against.
For this to happen, however, Conservative MPs would need to vote down their own government – something many would be very unlikely to do.
But assuming a vote was held and the government lost, there are two possible outcomes.
The most likely is that Parliament would be dissolved and a general election called. In these circumstance, Ms Truss would not be obliged to resign.
It is also possible that the King could invite somebody else to form a government – someone who could win a vote of confidence in the House of Commons.
How do Tory leadership contests work?
If the PM did step down, there are currently two stages to choosing a new Conservative leader.
Firstly, Tory MPs choose two candidates to go forward to a vote of the wider membership of the party.
If necessary, Tory MPs whittle down the field to these two with a series of ballots where the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated after each round.
In the second stage, party members vote for the winner.
In the contest held over the summer, Ms Truss won 81,326 votes among party members, compared with 60,399 for her rival Rishi Sunak.
But if one of the candidates withdraws, the remaining candidate becomes Conservative Party leader without a final vote. This happened when Theresa May became leader in 2016.
The 1922 Committee sets the contest’s timetable and rules. However, this only applies to the stages in Parliament.
Removing party members from the voting process would likely require a change to the Conservative party’s constitution.
Will there be a general election?
There isn’t automatically a general election when a new PM is appointed.
If Ms Truss stays (or a new Tory PM takes over) and decides not to call an early election, the next one does not have to be held until January 2025 at the latest.
