Truss a 'courageous woman brought down by pygmies' - Shrewsbury MP

Shrewsbury & Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski has spoken of his disappointment at Mrs Truss's departure as Prime Minister.

Mr Kawczynski has also called on his party colleagues to rally round a fresh choice as leader, in an effort to get to grips with the economic crisis.

He added that the current situation had put Boris Johnson's 'partygate' indiscretions into perspective.

Speaking about Mrs Truss's decision to resign he said: "She is the only politician in the last 30 years who has recognised the UK is hurtling towards bankruptcy, and every year over the last 50 years we have had to borrow money.

"She is the only politician who understood that and had the guts to make a statement that we need to radically change the taxation policy in this country.

"Some of our greatest talents in business and commerce have left the country and the brain drain is continuing. How can we compete against countries like Singapore, where the top rate of tax is 16 per cent? And the situation can only get worse until we stop being a society that wants to penalise entrepreneurs and wealth creators."

He added: "People in the media, people in the House of Commons, in the Bank of England, the Treasury, all tried to undermine this courageous approach and that is very concerning because we are facing a national crisis."

Mr Kawczynski said his party now had to focus on finding a fresh leader who could command the respect of parliament.

He said: "What I want to see is a new leader elected, whether it is Penny Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch, whoever it is – some people are talking about Boris Johnson coming back – I want the Conservative Party to elect a leader who will command the authority of, and respect of the House of Commons, and be strong and robust in taking those on who try to undermine the Government.

"We are hurtling towards a profound recession. This is not the time for division and disunity. We need to coalesce around a leader, back him or her and get to grips with the economic crisis."

Mr Kawczynski said he had "pleaded on bended knee" at the 1922 Committee for his colleagues not to remove Boris Johnson as Prime Minster.

He said: "I warned them, if you remove a prime minister elected by the electorate there would be consequences."

He added: "I would give my right arm to be facing the problems we were facing under his premiership with partygate, compared to the problems we have today.

"We had media hysteria for six months – 'Did the Prime Minister have a bit of cake?', 'Did the Prime Minister have a glass of wine in the garden?'

"I think that six months of hysteria is now being put into context, bearing in mind his removal has led to such instability and such division."