Pheu Thai savages Prime Minister Anutin as floods, scam failures and leaked Ben Smith photos fuel a spiralling crisis that has shredded his credibility. Both the PM and his party are sinking in the polls while his government battles accusations of chaos and collapse.
Pheu Thai intensified pressure on Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Friday, blasting what it called a lapse-prone administration and a leader repeatedly caught flat-footed. The attack targeted not only his performance as Prime Minister but also his earlier tenure as Minister of the Interior in two Pheu Thai-led governments. Former minister Dr. Linthiporn Warinwatcharoj and party-list MP Anusorn Iamsaard delivered the criticism, portraying Mr. Anutin as a leader struggling to control a government marked by missteps and drift, with Dr. Linthiporn accusing him of dithering and mistaking empty rhetoric for real action.
As political pressure mounted over stalled crackdowns on scam syndicates and renewed scrutiny of Thailand’s emergency-response failures, Dr. Linthiporn Warinwatcharoj escalated the confrontation on Friday, directly challenging Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s credibility and record.
She said the government’s failures were not sudden or accidental, but the result of a long-standing pattern of inaction that began during Mr. Anutin’s tenure as Minister of the Interior and had now carried into his first three months as Prime Minister.
Against this backdrop, Dr. Linthiporn delivered one of the sharpest attacks yet. She accused the Prime Minister of ignoring a March 2024 cabinet resolution that ordered the Interior Ministry to cut utilities to scam compounds—a directive she said should have been executed under his authority but was left untouched.
Government inaction on scam crackdowns deepens pressure as Dr Linthiporn intensifies attack
She argued that this lapse had allowed criminal networks to operate with uninterrupted infrastructure and continued to undermine national security.
The country now faces a special parliamentary session on constitutional legislation, yet the government approaches it under heavy fire. The attacks on Mr. Anutin have grown broader and sharper as his administration faces crisis after crisis. The Prime Minister has completed only three months in office, but the challenges already appear overwhelming.
The political climate has hardened due to a faltering economy, severe flooding in Hat Yai, and renewed allegations involving scammer syndicates. These issues have created a perception of disorder inside the government.
Moreover, they have amplified doubts about the administration’s grip on national stability. The sense of instability increased again after photographs surfaced showing Mr. Anutin and Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas with financier Benjamin Mauerberger, also known as Ben Smith.
Leaked photos fuel doubts over networks, privilege and proximity to controversial financier
These photographs revived concerns about networks, privilege, and proximity to controversial financial actors. They also triggered fresh scrutiny of the government’s stance on corruption.
Against this backdrop, the Pheu Thai Party launched direct attacks on the Prime Minister’s leadership. The criticism forced a rebuttal from both the Bhumjaithai Party and Mr. Anutin himself. However, the damage appeared immediate.
His poll numbers fell sharply, and his party slipped in national rankings. These shifts also pointed to a wider political mood that now appears set to dominate the upcoming General Election. Corruption, illicit capital, and government accountability are expected to define that contest.
Dr. Linthiporn Warinwatcharoj is a former Deputy Minister of Education and former Pheu Thai list MP. She used her position as deputy secretary-general to launch a detailed critique of Mr. Anutin’s performance.
She focused on his time as Interior Minister and on his actions since becoming Prime Minister. She said his three months in office revealed “talking but not doing,” a phrase she repeated to characterise his leadership. Her remarks were direct, factual, and grounded in timelines that she said the public could verify.
Cabinet directives ignored as Interior Ministry failures expose unresolved backlog under Anutin
She began by highlighting the cabinet decision of March and April 2024, which instructed the Ministry of the Interior to cut off power and essential services to scam compounds. She said the ministry failed to implement this directive. She argued that this failure allowed scam operations to continue without disruption.
According to her, decisive action only occurred in February 2025, when former Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra ordered immediate cuts. The National Security Council then issued enforcement instructions the next day.
Eventually, on June 23, 2025, the state advanced the crackdown again. She said the timeline showed that the Interior Ministry under Mr. Anutin had allowed a backlog of unresolved work.
She also addressed Mr. Anutin’s explanation of his removal from the Interior Ministry. She said his claim was misleading. She noted that polls at the time placed him second in popularity under both Prime Minister Settha Thavisin and Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. She said he was “creating rhetoric to avoid the truth” by shifting responsibility to others.
Drug suppression failures, slow local action and weak leadership shape Dr Linthiporn’s criticism
Furthermore, she criticised his drug suppression record. She acknowledged action against major traffickers and border smuggling. Yet she said local-level work was slow, lacked coordination, and failed to involve subdistrict and village leaders.
This, she said, forced then-Prime Minister Paetongtarn to repeatedly press for faster results. The Interior Ministry, she said, moved at a “snail’s pace” and did not match the scale of the problem. She cited the need for stronger community safety efforts and quicker suppression of small-scale traffickers. These actions, she said, never materialised during his term.
Her criticism sharpened again when she turned to his performance as Prime Minister. She said his inaction on scam networks became more visible after the United States and the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on October 14, 2025. She said these sanctions presented a clear opportunity for Thailand to accelerate enforcement.
Instead, she said, Thailand remained inactive. She argued that this delay contributed to the broader crisis and overlapped with the southern flood disaster. The flooding caused numerous deaths and exposed failures in decision-making. She said the public had begun questioning whether scammer asset seizures were being used to divert attention from those failures.
Flood disaster, sanctions fallout and widening crises intensify pressure on Anutin government
She also said the past three months revealed a repeated pattern. According to her, issues such as drug addiction, scams, and southern flooding highlighted an absence of effective leadership.
She said Mr. Anutin continued to refer to earlier popularity polls even though those figures reflected the Pheu Thai government’s strength at the time. She added that current polls showed a steep decline.
She said the public gave the flood response “a virtually complete fail.” She cited his personal approval rating of 4.38% and the Bhumjaithai Party’s drop to sixth place at 5.32%. These figures, she said, reflected the public’s assessment of the administration.
Meanwhile, the controversy surrounding Ben Smith continued to grow. Leaked photos of the Prime Minister with the financier triggered questions inside parliament. Pheu Thai list MP Anusorn Iamsaard said the images raised doubts about the government’s reluctance to crack down on “grey capitalists.”
New questions surround Ben Smith and rising suspicion over photos as pressure mounts on PM
He said the Prime Minister had earlier used leaked photos of opposition MPs to attack rivals. However, once his own images surfaced, he “said nothing.” Mr. Anusorn said the public wanted to know who released the photos and why.
He added that the Prime Minister admitted meeting Ben Smith five or six times. He said the public now wanted to know when the most recent meeting occurred. If that meeting was recent, he said, the implications would be clear.
He also linked the issue to the call-centre bribery scandal. He said the monthly 40-million-baht payments had stopped, and the public was still waiting for answers. He warned that the Prime Minister faced risks if more photos emerged. He said new images could contradict official explanations and leave “sharp digital footprints” that the Prime Minister could not escape.
Additionally, he said the Prime Minister had prepared to dissolve parliament to avoid scrutiny. Mr. Anutin had said he was wearing a seatbelt to avoid political accidents. However, Mr. Anusorn said the seatbelt “might not save him.”
Opposition warns against dissolving parliament and using reform as a political weapon
Flood failures had already shattered confidence. He said two months of a minority government had created deep uncertainty. He questioned how the government could manage a full four-year term.
He also warned against using the constitutional amendment as a pretext for dissolving parliament. He said constitutional amendment and no-confidence proceedings could run together. He said it was wrong to claim otherwise.
He added that the government had enough declared support and should not pretend it lacked votes. He said the minority government feared scrutiny, not legislative defeat. According to him, claims about procedural obstacles were “political rhetoric” meant to divert attention.
Finally, he outlined issues the opposition planned to raise. These included scam networks, grey capital, Senate collusion, the MotoGP budget, the US–Thailand rare earth agreement, and the flood crisis.
Leaked photos, corruption concerns and flood fallout intensify scrutiny of embattled government
He also mentioned the leaked photos and their effect on the government’s credibility. He said these issues were enough to question the government’s competence and transparency. He warned the administration not to dissolve parliament and use constitutional reform as a political tool.
As Thailand enters a decisive political period, these converging crises have increased the pressure on an already weakened government.
Shock in Bangkok as photos of the Prime Minister and Finance Minister with Ben Smith published online
Stinging attack on Prime Minister Anutin from former top cop Gen Surachate Hakparn over Hat Yai deaths
Prime Minister Anutin’s best laid political plans sunk by Hat Yai unfolding disaster as failures emerge
The fallout from the floods, the unresolved actions on scammers, and the Ben Smith photographs have reshaped the political conversation. The weeks ahead will test the Prime Minister’s authority, his party’s stability, and the government’s ability to maintain control in the face of mounting challenges.
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Further reading:
High powered, secretive meeting chaired by PM agrees robust action against Cambodian networks
Thailand and Cambodia face danger from ‘Dragon Head’ the Chinese mafia leader behind the scams
Cyber police and Money Laundering agency seek UK and US co-operation targeting Cambodian networks
United States, South Korea and United Kingdom act against Cambodian scam industry with Thai tie-ins
