By Ben Kerrigan-
Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for an immediate general election following the resignation of the prime minister on Thursday.
Following the resignation of Liz Truss as prime minister after just 45 days in the job, the opposition leader took the opportunity to call for an election, as he took a swipe at the shambles that have become of the conservative party, following its chaotic patters of mediocrity and disunity in the past few years.
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Starmer attacked what he called “this revolving door of chaos”
“The Tories cannot respond to their latest shambles by yet again simply clicking their fingers and shuffling the people at the top without the consent of the British people,” he said. “They do not have a mandate to put the country through yet another experiment; Britain is not their personal fiefdom to run how they wish.
“The British public deserve a proper say on the country’s future. They must have the chance to compare the Tories’ chaos with Labour’s plans to sort out their mess, grow the economy for working people and rebuild the country for a fairer, greener future. We must have a chance at a fresh start. We need a general election – now.”
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A new prime minister is expected to be announced by 28 October in what will be the second Conservative Party leadership election this year.
The Liberal Democrats, the SNP and the Green Party have also been calling for an immediate general election.
SNP Westminster Leader Ian Blackford MP said the “utter chaos at the centre of the Tory government cannot continue any longer”.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: “We do not need another Conservative prime minister lurching from crisis to crisis, we need a general election.
“It is time for Conservative MPs to do their patriotic duty, put the country first and give the people a say.”
The next general election is not due to take place until at least 2024, after the Conservatives won a landslide majority in the last one in 2019.
Ms Truss was elected by the Tory membership in September, but she lost authority after a series of U-turns.
In a brief speech outside Downing Street, Ms Truss said the Conservative Party had elected her on a mandate to cut taxes and boost economic growth.
But given the situation, Ms Truss said: “I recognise that I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.”
Ms Truss said she would remain in post until a successor formally takes over as party leader and is appointed prime minister by King Charles III.
She will become the shortest-serving PM in British history when she stands down.
Leading pollster Professor Sir John Curtice said whoever leads the Conservative party next should “enjoy the next 18 months to two years, because that will probably their tenure”.
“Parties and governments who preside over a fiscal crisis have nearly always struggled at the ballot box at the next election,” Sir John said.
An Opinium poll this week projected a 1997-style landslide for Labour, with the party winning 411 seats.
The same poll, conducted for the TUC interviewing more than 10,000 adults, predicted the Conservatives would be reduced from 356 MPs to 137.
Sir Keir said: “This is not just a soap opera at the top of the Tory party – it’s doing huge damage to the reputation of our country.
“We need a general election so the public can have their say on this utter chaos.
“There is an alternative and that is a stable Labour government. We are ready to form a government and stabilise the economy and implement a real plan for government living standards and help people through a cost of living crisis. “
In his speech to the TUC conference earlier, Sir Keir said the Tories were too bogged down with “pathetic squabbles” to govern the country.
Sir Keir said Labour had a long-term plan to “deliver cheaper bills and higher living standards for working people, growth and jobs in every part of our country”.
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola sturgeon added her voice to that of Sturgeon as she called a national vote a “democratic imperative”, saying: “There are no words to describe this utter shambles adequately.
“It’s beyond hyperbole and parody. Reality though is that ordinary people are paying the price.”
Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the country needed “real change”.
“We do not need another Conservative prime minister lurching from crisis to crisis, we need a general election,” he said. “It is time for Conservative MPs to do their patriotic duty, put the country first and give the people a say.”
In a later interview with Andrew Marr on LBC, Starmer repeated his call for an election – and suggested a Labour government would not make spending cuts on the scale being contemplated by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.
“I ran a public service for five years during a period where we took spending cuts and I know what that feels like,” he said. “And I know that there aren’t many public services that can take much more by way of spending cuts. So I’m not going to go down that route.”
He admitted: “It may mean for an incoming Labour government that we can’t do everything that we want, as quickly as we might like.”
For the first time in a long while, the labour party would look set for a straightforward win if an election were called tomorrow. The conservative party would avoid that at all cost.
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