“This can’t keep happening,it’s an affront to our democracy and to the public,” she said.
Loading
Asked by a Conservative Party member if it was time to get rid of Truss because of her disdain for supporters of her leadership rival Rishi Sunak,Patel said that would lead to even more division. She took the top job only a month ago.
“We’ve just done that and nothing would be more divisive for the party and country,” she said.
Patel also hit out at the unfunded spending package announced by Truss and Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng,saying it was loading an unsustainable burden on future generations.
She said the Conservative Party needed to relearn some “basic hard truths” that government spending was not unlimited.
“The Conservative Party lives or dies by its ability to handle the nation’s finances,” she said,echoing a similar warningfrom Australia’s former foreign minister and High Commissioner to the UK Alexander Downer.
In a further sign of the instability plaguing His Majesty’s government,cabinet ministers openly argued about whether the government should raise benefits for the poor in line with inflation.
The row has opened up after Truss’ senior ministers suggested that benefits could be cut to pay for the £45 billion ($80 billion) spending package announced a fortnight ago.
Speaking after a photo opportunity at a construction site,Truss said she was enjoying being prime minister.
She also said that the war in Ukraine presented the government with the opportunity to begin from scratch on a range of policies.
But Johnson loyalist and ex-cabinet minister Nadine Dorries,who backed Truss over Sunak,said Truss had no mandate under Britain’s democratic system to do that.
“Conservative MPs removed the PM people wanted and voted for with a stonking big majority less than three years ago,” Dorries said.
“We can’t remove the policies too! That’s just not how our unwritten constitution/democracy works or the example[we] should set to the rest of the free world,” she tweeted.