Liz Truss outside Downing Street yesterday. Photo: Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street

AFTER watching Liz Truss finally call time on a catastrophic 45-day spell as prime minister yesterday (Thursday), it might have been expected to find the borough’s Conservatives in despair.

But the chairman of the local association instead suggested that the party was going through little more than a mid-term “lull”, as experienced by most administrations. Speaking in the immediate aftermath of Ms Truss’s short resignation speech at the now well-used Downing Street lectern, Zak Vora said: “I’m sure we’ve all seen holes [in government operation] recently. They may not be as buoyant as they were in the past, but it’s usual we have a lull mid-term and I wouldn’t take this as out of step from the norm.”

Ms Truss had taken over after Boris Johnson was ousted by the party in July, but after a series of blundering economic policies which triggered a run on the pound and left pension funds creaking and mortgage rates spiralling, she conceded she was “unable to deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party”.

The abysmal brevity of her time at Number 10 represents the shortest ever period somebody has held the role. Mr Vora, however, said that nobody should expect the nation to now be heading to the polls.

He said: “Everyone among [Islington Conservatives] is of the opinion that a general election is not on the table. We have some very obvious situations: the cost of living crisis, the energy crisis, and a difficult situation between Russia and Ukraine. It’s time to focus on those situations.”

Asked who he would like to come next, he added: “I haven’t had a chance to think about it, it was a bit of a shock to see our current prime minister resign.”

Deputy chairman Will Woodroofe suggested other parties would be foolish to write off the party and that the ship could be steadied.

He said: “This is obviously not ideal but we’ve bounced back from challenging before and I’m fairly confident we’ll bounce back from challenging again. “The Tory party’s resilience and ability to pull itself together and get back on track is central to that success.”

He said the PM’s resignation was “really sad” for her as a “human being”, but he added: “It’s pretty clear she’s done the right thing by agreeing to go for the sake of political and economic stability.”

In relation to calls for a general election, Mr Woodroofe insisted the Conservatives still “have a mandate from the 2019 general election, and it’s important to see that out”.

Nick Brainsby, another local member, said: “I think obviously the opposition will be seeking a general election as soon as possible. However we’re looking forward to a general election in two years time.

“In the meantime it gives whoever forms the new government time to deliver on the 2019 manifesto and it’s important we try and do that. We’re not putting our heads in the sand, we’re looking up and saying, right, the pm’s tenure has not worked out for a lot of reasons but we need to get back to the mandate we were voted in for.”

Frustration among the party’s natural supporters could not go undetected, however. Lenny Villa, who runs Villa Framing in Caledonian Road and has been a Conservative Party member since he was 19, said: “The world sees the UK as a banana republic, it’s just a shambles. It’s like a Charlie Chaplin film, they go from pillar to post and every single person is looking and thinking what’s going on?”

A new occupant for Number 10 could be in place within a week with as the Tories looking to avoid another bruising leadership contest. Anybody who wants to run has been told they need the support of 100 MPs to take part. Last night (Thursday), speculation was blossoming over the possibility of Mr Johnson making a return, but Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt were emerging as key contenders. New chancellor Jeremy Hunt ruled himself out.

In a chaotic week, Ms Truss saw all her tax plans junked by Mr Hunt, found herself mocked with the idea that she was “hiding under a desk” when she failed to appear before MPs in the House of Commons, and embarrassed by a chaotic fracking vote. Even before then she had given a brief and stuttering performance at a press conference following the sacking of her first chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng. A day earlier he had said he was “going nowhere”.

The U-turns had begun when Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng abandoned plans to reduce tax bills for the highest earners in the UK. This week, Ms Truss said sorry for the fallout from her policy programme on the economy and said she had gone “too far, too fast” – although she did this first in a BBC interview rather than the House of Commons. In the same media appearance, she insisted that she would lead the Tories into the next general election and at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, she said she was a “fighter, not a quitter”.

One last U-turn saw her back in front of the cameras in Downing Street confirming it was all over and that she was indeed resigning, just 24 hours later. In her resignation speech, Ms Truss insisted that she had “delivered on energy bills and on cutting national insurance”, although Mr Hunt has already reduced the amount of support families will get to cope with the escalating prices and warned that the books will have to balanced. The pound rallied after Ms Truss had confirmed she was leaving.

Councillor Kaya Comer-Schwartz, the Labour leader of Islington Council, said yesterday (Thursday): “I just feel like it’s the latest iteration of complete chaos constructed by the Conservative Party.

“It is the escalation of 12 years of shocking government, and now we’re dealing with the impact on public services, our residents, and the NHS.”

Meanwhile, Islington South MP Emily Thornberry told the Tribune: “We need a general election. It’s the only way we can get out of this mess. We need a government people can trust – and they don’t trust this one. They can’t fix it.”

And Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn described Ms Truss as “the symptom of a broken political system and a democracy in crisis”.

“I welcome the resignation of Liz Truss, marking the end of a truly disastrous display,” he said. “However, a change in the prime minister is not enough to tackle the scale of the cost of living crisis facing my constituents. “We live in a borough of enormous inequality. Without transformative change, the gap between the rich and poor will only widen.”

Green party councillor Benali Hamdache said: “Every­one can see that politics is broken. The way that we elect our representatives has set us up for this crisis. “Ultimately, you look at the last election and more people voted for other parties than the Conservatives. You have tyranny by minority. They have a coalition that is unstable, it is a party that can’t agree with itself, and we’ve never been more poorly governed.”

A view from the markets

David Twydell at Chapel Market

THE chair of the Chapel Market Traders Association suggested last night (Thursday) that Boris Johnson would now be the best bet to take over from Liz Truss, writes Izzy Rowley.

As a vacancy opened up at Downing Street once more, David Twydell said: “I’ve met him a few times at the markets and he’s like a common working man. There are no airs and graces with Boris. He is what he is. He’s like ‘this is me and let’s get on with it.’ He does what he says on the tin.” Mr Twydell added: “He’s a scatterbrain but he gets stuck in. He did what he said, like with Brexit, he saw us through Brexit, and the pandemic, he steered us through that. “He made mistakes, but he’s only human.”

But Mr Twydell warned that the ruling Conservative Party seemed divided, adding: “It seems that there’s no camaraderie amongst the Tories at the moment. They’re all stabbing each other in the back.” Mr Twydell was brought up as a Labour voter but has swayed to the Tory party.

Now, however, he feels betrayed, adding: “I think it’s a farce to be honest with you. I think we need a general election. Theresa May, Boris Johnson, and now Liz Truss – there’s been no trust in them whatsoever. If there’s no trust amongst their own party, then there’s no trust amongst the voters. “There’s got to be a general election.”