Minister warns Tory MPs against removing Liz Truss as pressure grows on PM – UK politics live

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Belfast is the place to be this week, underlining renewed efforts to find a settlement on the Northern Ireland protocol issue.

On Monday, it was the Northern Ireland secretary and minister Chris Heaton-Harris and Steve Baker. US state secretary Antony Blinken’s special adviser Derek Chollet was also there.

On Wednesday it was Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney‘s turn.

Today a seven-member trade delegation from the European parliament will hold talks with civil society and the Business Brexit Working Group and party representatives.

The delegation is made up of MEPs Nathalie Loiseau (France), Bernd Lange and Sven Simon (Germany) Se?n Kelly and Barry Andrews (Ireland), Inma Rodriguez Pinero (Spain) and Ern? Schaller-Baross (Hungary).

Kelly said:

It is essential that we hear the issues of most concern to people and businesses first-hand. These are the people that will need to live with, and accept, the Northern Ireland Protocol. Their voices must be heard in the outcome of any agreed solution between the EU and the UK. I am particularly conscious that without an Assembly formed, Northern Ireland is somewhat lacking a clear voice on these issues, which is unfair and regretful.

Liz Truss is facing a rebellion from Jacob Rees-Mogg‘s business department over plans to ban solar power from most of England’s farmland.

The prime minister and her environment secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, want to ban solar from about 41% of the land area of England, or about 58% of agricultural land, the Guardian revealed earlier this week.

But her business secretary, Rees-Mogg, is understood to believe it is “unconservative” to tell farmers what they can and cannot do with their land. Her climate minister, Graham Stuart, said on Wednesday he would be speaking to Defra about the plans as more ground-mount solar is needed to meet renewable energy targets.

In a piece for the Guardian, Rees-Mogg, who has previously decried “climate alarmism”, insists he is convinced by the need to boost renewable energy. He also reveals new policies including loosening regulations for businesses to put solar power in place and giving homeowners grants to install panels on their houses.

In the piece, he says he is “not a green energy sceptic”, adding that his department would give “unprecedented support” to renewable energy sources. Rees-Mogg also brands coalmines and oil rigs as “dark satanic mills”, vowing to replace them with windfarms.

On solar, he adds:

We are exploring options to support low-cost finance to help householders with the upfront costs of solar installation, permitted development rights to support deployment of more small-scale solar in commercial settings and designing performance standards to further encourage renewables, including solar PV, in new homes and buildings.

Read the full piece by Jacob Rees-Mogg here:

Here are some more lines from James Cleverly‘s morning interview round.

Cleverly, the foreign secretary, said removing Liz Truss as prime minister would be a “disastrously bad idea” and only worsen market turmoil.

The PM deserves support to push through her economic growth plan, he said:

We have got to recognise that we do need to bring certainty to the markets. I think that changing the leadership would be a disastrously bad idea, not just politically but also economically.

He acknowledged that recent turmoil in the financial markets was linked to the mini-budget, but argued “many of the challenges we are facing are challenges shared by countries around the world”.

He defended the decision by the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, to scrap the planned rise in corporation tax in his controversial mini-budget:

I think that it is absolutely right that we want to invest in businesses. It is absolutely right that we help them stay competitive, we help them stay afloat. We have got to make sure we can compete internationally with the other places businesses can choose to locate. We have got to make sure we are tax-competitive.

He declined to rule out further U-turns but insisted the government should “absolutely” stick with Kwarteng’s budget:

Ultimately, what that mini-budget was about was protecting tens of millions of people from unaffordable energy prices. That was the bulk of that proposal. It was about making sure that taxes for 30 million people were reduced a little bit and those are really strong principles. I think we should absolutely stick with those.

He said the planned statement by the chancellor on 31 October will set out a more “holistic” view of the government’s plans, but the “foundations” of the mini-budget were “really key for the growth agenda the prime minister has put forward”.

The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said the government will be making “professional and tough decisions” on public spending.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said:

There are always areas of public expenditure where we can make sure that the growth doesn’t outmatch the growth in economy.

Defence is going to grow to 3% of GDP. That is above inflation growth. That is committed to. There are other areas where we are going to have to keep it much closer to inflationary growth, but the Prime Minister said we are not going to be cutting public services.

We are going to be making professional and tough decisions and we are going to grow the economy because the economic growth is going to be the thing that unlocks all those options for us. They are not mutually exclusive.

He added that people should not have been surprised by Liz Truss’s plans for growth which formed the basis of Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget.

The PM had “said she would protect people and businesses who were facing an unprecedented increase in their energy bills”, Cleverly said:

That is what she said she would do. That is what she is doing. The fact that that seems to have taken some people by surprise is not her fault. We are going to stick with the plan. The plan is to grow the economy.

Good morning. Liz Truss is facing intense pressure from within her own Conservative party to abandon her economic plan following a market backlash to the measures.

The prime minister’s leadership is in fresh peril with calls growing among senior Tories to reverse more proposed tax cuts and MPs accusing her of “trashing” Conservative values.

The PM’s allies rallied around her after she endured a bruising appearance at a meeting of her backbenchers on Wednesday evening. MPs described her performance as “just appalling” and raised serious concerns about mortgage rates and polls showing a hefty Labour lead.

At a meeting of the backbench 1922 Committee, the chair of the education select committee, Robert Halfon, told Truss she had “trashed the last 10 years of workers’ Conservatism”. One MP later described the atmosphere as “funereal” and another described the situation as impossible.

But foreign secretary, James Cleverly, came to her defence this morning, arguing that getting rid of Truss as prime minister would be a “disastrously bad idea”.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Cleverly said the government needed to do things that would “bring certainty to the markets”.

He acknowledged that recent turmoil in the financial markets was linked to the mini-budget, but argued “many of the challenges we are facing are challenges shared by countries around the world”.

Cleverly said:

I think changing the leadership would be a disastrously bad idea politically and also economically.

We are absolutely going to stay focused on growing the economy.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning. Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill – second reading.

2pm. The chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, is in the US to meet with IMF leaders in Washington DC.

2pm. Work and pensions secretary, Chloe Smith, at the Policy Exchange in Westminster.

2pm. Weekly Covid-19 surveillance report, from the UK Health Security Agency.