Conservative MPs urge Truss's removal under a month in office

LONDON: Three-quarters of UK voters, including a staggering 71 per cent of those who backed the Conservatives at the last general election, believe the prime minister, Liz Truss, and the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, have "lost control" of the economy, according to a devastating poll for the Observer on the eve of the Tory conference, local media reported.

The survey by Opinium - which also reveals that Labour has extended its lead by a massive 14 percentage points in the last week alone, from five points to 19 points, and that Truss's ratings are now lower than Boris Johnson's at the height of the Partygate scandal - comes as some Tory MPs are beginning to demand the new prime minister's removal from No 10 after less than a month in office.

Other senior party figures are warning that the damage to the party's reputation for economic management resulting from Kwarteng's tax-cutting budget, is so serious that it will take many years to repair, The Guardian reported.

Tory peer Gavin Barwell, a former MP and chief of staff to Theresa May, writing in Sunday's Observer, says the Truss government "has thrown away the Conservative party's reputation for sound management of the public finances" in its first month in office, adding that "it will take years to undo all the damage".

In the last seven days, the Tories have surrendered a narrow one-point lead on the question of economic management and now trail Labour by 19 points.

On Saturday night, however, a defiant Truss showed no sign of backing down over her tax cuts, which panicked the markets, sent the pound spiralling downwards and raised the prospect of imminent further rises in interest rates.

Speaking before the Tory conference, which opens today in Birmingham, a defiant Truss said the economy needed a "reset" as she vowed to press on.

She said: "We cannot continue on the current trajectory of managed decline. Instead, we must take a new direction. I will lead us down that path to a better future," The Guardian reported.

In further dire news for the new prime minister, some Tory MPs are already in talks with Labour over how to block elements of the prime minister's plans, with parliamentary rebellions looming over likely real-terms cuts to welfare, planning reforms and a new wave of austerity.