Tory fury as Truss allies brand Sajid Javid ‘s***’ amid claims he was first choice to be chancellor

Tory MPs reacted with fury today after allies of Liz Truss launched a foul-mouthed attack on former minister Sajid Javid.

Amid rumours he was the PM’s first choice to replace Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor, sources told the Sunday Times she regarded him as ‘s***’ after years working with him in Cabinet.

They also suggested that Ms Truss ‘laughed out loud’ at the idea of Mr Javid returning to No11, having been sacked by Boris Johnson in 2020.

Mr Kwarteng was fired on Friday over the mini-Budget and replaced that day by Jeremy Hunt, the former foreign secretary. 

But the attack on Mr Javid prompted criticism from other Tory backbenchers.

Education Committee chairman Robert Halfon today said the attack was ‘disgusting’.

He told Sky News: ‘The briefings that have come out using four-letter words to describe Sajid Javid, I’ve known him since university, he’s a really good man, he was respected.

‘He didn’t tank the economy when he was chancellor and if the Prime Minister wants to unite the party and get people around her, then these kind of negative briefings about colleagues have got to stop.

Amid rumours he was the PM’s first choice to replace Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor, sources told the Sunday Times she regarded Sajid Javid as ‘s***’ after years working with him in Cabinet

Education Committee chairman Robert Halfon today said the attack was ‘disgusting’ saying Mr Javid was a ‘good and decent man’.

And ex-chief whip Mark Harper said: ‘Sajid Javid is a good colleague and, although we backed different candidates in the leadership election, I’m proud to call him a fellow Conservative’

See also  Grant Shapps reveals what life is like with Ukrainian refugee family

‘All it does is bring disharmony to the party when what the Prime Minister should be doing is doing everything possible to bring people together, bring the country together.’

And ex-chief whip Mark Harper said: ‘Sajid Javid is a good colleague and, although we backed different candidates in the leadership election, I’m proud to call him a fellow Conservative. 

‘No10 briefing nasty insults about *their own* colleagues is not helpful to the Conservative Party when we need to work together.’

It comes amid reports today suggesting Ben Wallace, the respected Defence Secretary, is being lined up as a possible PM, with Rushi Sunak as chancellor. 

Questions still hang over the Government about whether it would be able to win enough support from a divided party for a series of painful decisions on tax and spending that have already prompted memories of the austerity era under David Cameron and George Osborne.

In a media blitz over the weekend, both Mr Hunt and Ms Truss tried to win over their own party and voters to the new Downing Street regime.

After completing several interviews on Saturday, the new chancellor will later appear on BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

Ms Truss, who used a piece in The Sun newspaper to admit that sacking her friend and ideological soulmate Mr Kwarteng had been a ‘wrench’, said: ‘We cannot pave the way to a low-tax, high-growth economy without maintaining the confidence of the markets in our commitment to sound money.’

Mr Hunt, writing in the Telegraph, said that the Government was ‘changing course’.

So far, his appointment has failed to dampen speculation of an imminent coup against Ms Truss.

Rishi Sunak, the defeated leadership contender and former chancellor, and Wallace have been among the names flagged as potential replacements.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown told LBC on Saturday that for Ms Truss it all hinges on how the markets receive the fiscal plan at the end of the month.

While he said he believes Mr Hunt could steady the ship, he warned that if ‘it doesn’t manage to satisfy the markets and satisfy everybody else and the economy is still in chaos then I think we would be in a very difficult situation’.

Elsewhere, there was speculation that including the Ministry of Defence in any round of spending cuts could spark a clash with Mr Wallace.

A defence source said he will hold Ms Truss to the pledges made.

Ms Truss promised to increase defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030 in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

The Prime Minister nonetheless still has her defenders within the party.

Former culture minister Nadine Dorries, a loyal follower of Boris Johnson, wrote in the Daily Express: ‘The sad truth is that those scheming to eject the Prime Minister from Downing Street are the same plotters who conspired to get rid of Boris. They will not rest until they have anointed their own chosen leader in power.’