Liz Truss faces fresh peril as ‘Balti Bandit’ rebels meet for secret curry plot
TORY plotters dubbed the “Balti Bandits” carved up Liz Truss’s future last night over a korma and bhuna feast, The Sun reveal.
Leading rebel Mel Stride hosted more than a dozen “miserable” Conservative MPs in his large House of Commons office for an Indian takeaway – with the PM’s fate also on the table.
Ex-Ministers John Glen, Nick Gibb, Mark Garnier and Shailesh Vara tucked into “lashings of curry and naan” ordered in by Mr Stride, alongside outspoken backbencher Simon Hoare.
2019 intake MPs Angela Richardson and Simon Baynes were also said to have joined the “poppadum plot” – but sources say the meeting ended with “no credible solution” to their woes.
The hush-hush meeting took place as desperate Truss-critics try to find a unity candidate to take the party through to the next general election.
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Contenders include ex-Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt – but given the party is deeply split, the plotters admitted the chances of a rapid “coronation” of a new PM were “almost zero.”
One attendee told The Sun: “the vast majority of attendees were Rishi Sunak supporters, but there were Penny people too. It was not a Rishi thing.”
Another present insisted: “If that was a plot, then Truss is safe where she is. It was just a room of very concerned people with absolutely no credible solution to the problem”.
The PM apologised for the chaos and market turmoil in an interview with the BBC on Monday night but the move hasn’t dampened speculation about her future.