Britain is going backwards with these people in charge

Election now: A general election is the only way to give the country the chance to move forward, writes Alastair Campbell

With each change of leader, we thought things couldn’t get worse – but they did (AP)

Oh, how we used to laugh at the Italians … “Who is your prime minister this month then, Luigi?” Ho ho ho. Aren’t we amazing with our ancient parliament and our democratic values that we exported to the world?

Today, it is self-styled “world-beating” Tory Britain that is being laughed at around the globe for the picture of political and economic chaos that it is projecting. Ambassadors based in London are running out of colourful imagery with which to describe the scale of the mess this government is in, and the damage it is doing to the country.

Four prime ministers in six years. Four chancellors of the Exchequer in as many months. Even Greece, mid-meltdown, couldn’t get close to that.

And now, as the Tory party wakes up to a reality many of us saw long before they voted to make Liz Truss their leader – that she is not up to the job of prime minister – they seem to think they can pull the same trick again. Change the leader. Have another prime minister. Get a new cabinet. Pretend it is a change of government. Keep on keeping on.

Twelve wasted years in which next to nothing about the country has improved: let’s keep making promises, let’s keep saying we are the people to sort out the mess we have inherited … from ourselves.

With each change of leader, we thought things could not get worse; and with each change of leader they did. David Cameron lasted six years, but then imploded on the back of the EU referendum he should never have called. Theresa May took over. She at least called a general election to seek her own mandate, but the result left her in office but weakened, she never really recovered, and Boris Johnson moved in.

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He did win a general election, as with the referendum, by telling a pack of lies and turning his bumbling act into a weird form of performative charisma. But lies and lawbreaking and his other character flaws brought him down. In came Truss. And here we are, in an economic and political crisis that would be hilarious if it wasn’t for the damage it is doing to people’s lives and living standards – and Britain’s standing in the world.

There is no “secret plot” to oust Truss, as some have claimed. “Secret”? Hardly. It is all the MPs are talking about – how do we get rid of her?

There are two caveats: how do we get rid of her, and install our fifth leader in six years, without going back to our deluded members who chose her in the first place? And, most importantly, how do we get rid of her, and install the new prime minister from within our ranks, without involving the general public?

In keeping the Tory members out of it, who can argue with the wisdom of that, given their recent choices – a liar and a lawbreaker, followed by someone so out of her depth it is embarrassing to watch.

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In interviews, Jeremy Hunt, the de facto prime minister despite being voted into that position by nobody but Truss, did his best to pretend that she was the right person to be in No 10 – and pretended that something called “compassionate Conservatism” drove the architects of Austerity Mark One who are now planning Austerity Mark Two.

Hunt said the last thing the country needs is “another protracted leadership contest”. Too right. The country needs a general election, and it needs it sooner rather than later. These people are incapable of taking it forwards. They are inflicting enormous damage on families, public services and businesses all around the UK.

The people who gave us this disaster are not the people to get us out of it. The idea that they should be able to install a fifth prime minister without reference to the general public is a democratic obscenity. The country is going backwards with these people in charge. A general election is the only way to give the country the chance to move forward.

Alastair Campbell is a writer, communicator and strategist who served as Tony Blair’s spokesperson, press secretary and communications director