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Liz Truss’s bombshell resignation today sets up a lighting fast election for a new Tory leader with no obvious unity candidate to take over.
The party is keen to avoid a re-run of the summer’s bitter and protracted 55-day race in which she beat Rishi Sunak.
That race saw both sides engage in bitter blue-on-blue infighting, mainly over the economy, that did not help the party in the polls.
Ms Truss spent more than an hour in talks with 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady, Tory chairman Jake Berry and deputy PM Therese Coffey this morning.
Afterwards, announcing her resignation after just 44 days she revealed they had agreed a truncated election campaign lasting a week.
Sir Graham told reporters that he wants to run it, including possibly a vote of 160,000 party members, before the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt makes a fiscal statement on spending on October 31.
Asked if the party faithful will be included in the process, he told reporters: ‘Well, that is the expectation.
‘So the reason I’ve spoken to the party chairman and I discussed the parameters of a process is to look at how we can make the whole thing happen, including the party being consulted, by Friday next week.’
Sir Graham added: ‘I think we’re deeply conscious of the imperative in the national interest of resolving this clearly and quickly.’
They appear to be pinning their hopes on a single unity candidate can be identified who can effectively step in and avoid any further unpleasantness, with the party hemorrhaging support in the polls.
However, that unity candidate has yet to emerge, with several big names suggesting it should be them.
Those in the frame include Mr. Sunak, the former chancellor, Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.
Liz Truss’s bombshell resignation today sets up a fast-lighting election for a new Tory leader with no apparent unity candidate to take over.
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL
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