Liz Truss speaks outside Downing Street. Photo: Rory Arnold / No 10 Downing Street

THE leader of Camden Conservatives has welcomed the resignation of Liz Truss, and said that she did not do enough to reach out across the party after her election as leader of the party.

Gio Spinella, who became leader of the group of three councillors in Camden after the local elections in May, said he does not think there should be an election soon – saying that people are more concerned about their bills and mortgages. But he added that he thought the party would benefit from time in opposition.

Truss stood down as prime minister in a short statement outside Downing Street on Thursday lunchtime. She had only been in the job for 44 days, the shortest time as prime minister in British history.

Frognal Councillor Spinella said: “She was not my preferred candidate in the leadership election in the summer. I did express hope that she would work to unite the party, but unfortunately her cabinet choices from the outset suggested she was not going to do that and she would have a more factional approach to government.

“There has been a narrowing of the pool of people in government ever since Boris Johnson took office in 2018, and it has been made up of smaller and smaller circles until Liz Truss and that became the smallest of all circles.”

Cllr Spinella said that the catastrophic market reaction to Truss’ mini-budget, which included cuts to the top rate of tax, was unsurprising – and had expected the sacking of her chancellor and co-architect of the measures, Kwasi Kwarteng.

A replacement for Truss will be in place by October 28, according to the chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative Party backbenchers Graham Brady.

Cllr Spinella said: “The country can’t afford another protracted leadership contest that we had this summer to select Liz Truss. It was very self indulgent of the party, and we can’t do that again. When you are in opposition you can consult members, but I think considering we’re in government it is fair that it is just MPs.”

Leader of Camden Council Georgia Gould said that the “damage [caused by Truss] will be felt for years in higher mortgages and cuts to public services.

“There are deeply serious issues facing our country with residents unable to afford to buy food or heat their homes, not to mention the escalating climate crisis.”

Liz Truss with former Camden Tories leader Claire-Louise Leyland during a visit to Camden

Like her party’s leader, Holborn and St Pancras MP Sir Keir Starmer, Cllr Gould called for a general election. Sir Keir renewed his plea on Sky News within moments of Truss’ resignation statement. The Labour Party is regularly polling more than 30 points ahead of the governing party at the moment.

“Well what a mess, this is not just a soap opera at the top of the Tory party, it is doing huge damage to our economy and to the reputation of our country. The public are paying with higher prices, with higher mortgates, so we can’t have a revolving door of chaos, we can’t have another experiment at the top of the Tory party. There is an alternative that is a stable Labour government and the public are entitled to have their say and that’s why there should be a general election,” the Labour leader told broadcasters.

Cllr Spinella said that it was the wrong time for a general election, but admitted that his party – which was reduced to three councillors in May, would struggle to win again next time.

“Past trends do suggest it will be difficult to win again from the position that we’re in now, but we do live in unprecedented times. If an election wasn’t to happen until 2024, it would mean that there would have been 14 years of Conservative rule. It is almost part of the British cycle of politics that you then get a change of government, and that’s a healthy part of the democratic process.

“Sooner or later it will happen and we will be in opposition and that’s a good thing. It’s hard and a rarity when you’re in government to have that reappraisal of yourself as a party.”

Cllr Gio Spinella

Henry Newman, a former advisor to Boris Johnson’s government who served as a councillor in Frognal, alongside Cllr Spinella until May, told Sky News: “It’s just absolutely extraordinary, I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it. I thought with the Brexit referendum and indicative votes and meaningful votes, we lived through some of the most turbulent times in British politics but this is a different level.

“It would be quite irresponsible to plunge into a new general election. There would be questions about whether it would be in the best economic interests of the country. I think the government needs to come back together around a new leader, calm the markets, get on quietly with the job of running the country, not going back to the public.”

He refused to say whether he thought Johnson should run to become prime minister again: “I simply don’t know, I can’t speak for him. But I think that, I worked for him in Downing Street and he’s a politician I respected a great deal and I came to admire more and more as I saw him up close.”

Tom Simon, leader of the Lib Dem opposition in Camden said: “Liz Truss should never have been made PM. Her reckless policies have made life harder for many people in Camden and a time when things were already tough.

“The last weeks have shown very clearly that the problem with the Tory party wasn’t just Boris Johnson but rather the whole lot of them. They are not fit to govern. There should be a general election.”

Cllr Spinella, who is British-Italian, was born in Bournemouth and spent some of his teenage years in Sicily. He joked that after Brexit he thought Britain had entered its “Italian Years” of politics. He added: “But even Italy has never had a government as short as Liz Truss’.”