Nadine Dorries has said the Tories should bring back Boris Johnson or face a general election in weeks if they fail to stick with Liz Truss.
The former culture secretary said only Johnson, who was ousted by MPs earlier this year, had a “mandate” to govern after winning an 80-seat majority at the last general election.
Dorries, who backed Truss for the leadership, spoke after chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered an emergency statement in which he junked virtually all of the prime minister’s disastrous mini budget.
Hunt is now one of several Tory MPs being touted as a possible new party leader if Truss is brought down.
Angela Richardson this morning became the fourth Conservative backbencher to call for the PM to quit, telling Times Radio is it “no longer tenable” for her to remain in place.
Dorries said there was “no unity candidate” to take over and that only Johnson had a “mandate” from party members and the public.
“The choices are simple,” she tweeted. “Back Liz, if not bring back Boris or face a general election in weeks”.
In his statement earlier today, the chancellor took an axe to the key tax cutting pledges that catapulted Truss to power during the Tory leadership campaign.
Hunt watered down the prime minister’s plans to limit average energy bills to £2,500, saying that this guarantee would only last until April and not for the two-year period previously planned.
He also ditched Truss’s plan to reduce the basic rate of income tax from 20p to 19p, saying it would stay at its current rate “indefinitely”.
“It is a deeply held Conservative value – a value that I share – that people should keep more of the money that they earn,” Hunt said.
“But at a time when markets are rightly demanding commitments to sustainable public finances, it is not right to borrow to fund this tax cut.”
Elsewhere Hunt warned that some government spending would be cut to make up for the black hole that has emerged in the UK’s finances.
“The most important objective for our country right now is stability,” he said.
“Growth requires confidence and stability and the United Kingdom will always pay its way.
“This government will therefore take whatever tough decisions are necessary to do so.”
Following Hunt’s statement sterling rebounded by more than 1.2% to 1.139 against the US dollar.
Yields on 30-year government bonds, or gilts, eased back further by around 10% while the interest on long-dated bonds hit a low of around 4.32%.