IN this week’s column, Labour Warrington North MP Charlotte Nichols discusses the ‘Conservative chaos’ in Westminster.

I really wish that I could write a column on a worthwhile initiative in Parliament or a positive campaign in Warrington, but I’m afraid that once again everything is being overshadowed by the Conservative chaos in Westminster.

The Tories have just installed their third Prime Minister in the past three months, as Boris Johnson’s ethical failings have been compounded by Liz Truss’ ideological incompetence.

Now they have sidelined their members and appointed Rishi Sunak, despite him being rejected by a majority of their party over the summer.

This whole process was stitched up between the Conservative MPs, with no debate or explanation about what plans Sunak or anyone else have to fix our country after the mess that their party has landed us in.

It may be tempting to look back fondly on the time before Truss and her Chancellor crashed the pound and the economy, but Sunak’s own legacy at the Treasury was the highest taxes in 70 years, record levels of debt, the soaring inflation that has meant a cost of living crisis for the British public, and his boast that he diverted levelling up funds from deprived urban areas to wealthy Tory shires.

All indications are that as Prime Minister he will take us back into austerity, cutting our social security net and letting our public services fall into ruin when they are already stretched to the brink.

And of course nobody voted for this.

Just as the public hadn’t voted for Prime Minister Truss to make unfunded giveaways to the wealthy, or for her fracking plans, so nobody voted for Prime Minister Sunak to plunge us into austerity again.

I may have been sceptical about the 2019 Tory manifesto, but it did promise major investment in public services and in the north. They don’t have the public support or legitimacy to do the opposite now.

As MPs we are elected to parliament with the expectation that we will use our judgement to respond to events as they come along.

But twelve years into this Tory government, they are now changing their leaders and their policies at a farcical pace for which they have no mandate.

Rishi Sunak’s first action as Prime Minister should be to call a general election.