and here is a woman with a voice….

Widdecombe compares Tory MPs pushing for general election to ‘lemmings jumping off cliff’

The Prime Minister is under the cosh, with Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt today forced to deny she was “hiding under a desk” to avoid questions about sacked Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

By Ciaran McGrath

18:15, Mon, Oct 17, 2022 | UPDATED: 18:15, Mon, Oct 17, 2022

Liz Truss announces Jeremy Hunt as the new chancellor

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Tory MPs advocating a general election are like “lemmings jumping off a cliff, and the party would be “slaughtered” if there was a poll tomorrow, former minister Ann Widdecombe has said. The former MP for Maidstone in Kent, more latterly a Brexit Party MEP, offered her words of caution with her party lagging behind in the polls and Prime Minister Liz Truss under enormous pressure following Friday’s sacking of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

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So serious has the situation become that backbenchers have been whispering about the possibility of an early election, with ex-Culture Minister Nadine Dorries earlier this month urging Ms Truss to “go to the country” if she wanted to win a “whole new mandate”.

However, Ms Widdecombe said such a move would be sheer folly.

She told Express.co.uk: “If the election were tomorrow morning we would be slaughtered.

Ann Widdecombe has cautioned against Tory MPs pushing for an election – as Nadine Dorries has done (Image: PA)

Liz Truss sat beside Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in the Commons today (Image: PA)

“But the election is not tomorrow morning and this is what the Conservative parliamentary party needs to wake up to.

“They’ve got two years. Now they can spend two years arguing amongst themselves and knifing Prime Ministers and plotting and putting in letters or they can spend two years trying to build a credible general election platform, their choice.

“Any Tory MP who wants a general election really is acting like a lemming just jumping off a cliff.

“Anybody says that’s insane, quite insane. It really is time that the associations in the country started to get something of a grip and called in their MPs and said re-selection isn’t automatic.”