And the reason? Because they didn’t want to break their party’s manifesto pledge to ban fracking by, at the Prime Minister’s inexcusable insistence, voting for fracking.
There couldn’t be a more stark and shocking reminder that this government was not elected. The Prime Minister, who replaced one who broke the law and is currently under Parliamentary investigation for alleged sleaze, has never faced a General Election as the party’s leader. Under her “leadership”, it has taken a sharp lurch to the right, with policies such as closing legal immigration routes and sending refugees to Rwanda, a country with a poor record on human rights, demanding photo ID for voters, which will disproportionately affect those on low incomes who have no car or opportunity to travel abroad and therefore do not have a driving licence or a passport, criminalizing protest that actually makes a sound, and banning people who have never committed any crime from attending peaceful protests.
None of this has ever been voted for by the public, because none of it has ever been submitted to the public for a vote.
This is not a legally-constituted government. It is a right-wing coup. And it cannot be allowed to stand. As I’m writing this, Graham Brady of the 1922 Committee is meeting with Liz Truss. He needs to understand that yet another Prime Minister the country hasn’t voted for, with the opportunity to take the country in who-knows-what direction that has likewise never been submitted to the judgement of the electorate, won’t cut it.
We need a General Election. And we need it now.
