Liz Truss apologises TWICE in three hours over mini-Budget fiasco

The Prime Minister apologised to the nation for the first time last night as she vowed to carry on and even fight in the next General Election.

After a day of high drama in Westminster, Liz Truss said she wanted ‘to accept responsibility and say sorry’ for the turmoil sparked by last month’s mini-Budget.

She is also said to have ‘apologised’ to members of the One Nation group of moderate Conservative MPs during a meeting last night.

It came as her new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that £32billion worth of unfunded tax cuts – which formed the basis of her leadership campaign – were being reversed.

He also drastically cut back the Government’s energy bills support scheme from two years to six months to reassure the markets.

In an interview with the BBC, Miss Truss admitted that yesterday’s U-turns meant growing the economy ‘will take longer’.

She also opened up about how ‘painful’ it was to sack former chancellor and close friend Kwasi Kwarteng. Asked by the corporation’s political editor Chris Mason ‘who is to blame for this mess’, she replied: ‘Well, first of all, I do want to accept responsibility and say sorry for the mistakes that have been made.

‘I wanted to act to help people with their energy bills, to deal with the issue of high taxes but we went too far and too fast. I’ve acknowledged that.

‘I put in place a new Chancellor with a new strategy to restore economic stability. Now what I’m focused on is delivering for the public.’

Asked if her vision of a low-tax, high-growth economy was ‘dead’, she said yesterday’s U-turns were about ensuring ‘economic stability’.

She added: ‘I remain committed to the vision, but we will have to deliver that in a different way. I recognise that we did act too fast, and that’s why I’ve adjusted what we’re doing and I do think it is the mark of an honest politician who does say, “yes, I’ve made a mistake”. I’ve addressed that mistake.’

Asked if she accepted whether the economic turmoil had made it harder for people to pay their bills due to rising interest rates, she said: ‘Well, first of all I have said sorry. We went too far and too fast. 

‘We are in a difficult situation as a country and this difficult situation is being faced around the world and we’ve had to adjust our policies as a consequence.’ 

She also denied that the chaos of recent weeks meant she should stand down as PM, vowing to lead the Conservative Party into the next election.

She added: ‘I’m sticking around because I was elected to deliver for this country and that is what I am determined to do.’ 

Miss Truss’s comments came despite reports of mutiny within her party amid claims that backbench MPs are pushing to topple her this week.

Several Tories have already broken rank to call for her resignation just six weeks into her premiership including Crispin Blunt, Andrew Bridgen and Jamie Wallis.

Referring to the reports, she said: ‘I’m not focused on internal debates within the Conservative Party. The important thing is that I’ve been elected to this position to deliver for the country. We are facing very tough times.

‘We simply cannot afford to spend our time talking about the Conservative Party, rather than what we need to deliver. That is my message to my colleagues.’

During the Tory leadership contest in summer, Miss Truss pledged to turn Britain into a low-tax, high-growth economy in which ‘growing the pie’ would increase prosperity across the UK.

But she admitted that yesterday’s U-turns, which include pressing ahead with corporation tax rises and reversing a proposed 1p cut in the basic rate of income tax, would delay this vision.

She added: ‘I want us to be a country that has higher growth, where people can benefit from more opportunities across the country. I’ve also been honest that we’re facing a very difficult economic situation.

‘So we’ve had to change our ways of achieving that and it will take longer.’ She also opened up about how tough it was to sack long-time friend Mr Kwarteng as chancellor last week.

The pair are ideological bedfellows and co-wrote a treatise in 2012 called Britannia Unchained, a free marketeer’s blueprint.

Of the sacking, she said: ‘Look, it was a very tough decision. It was painful and Kwasi is a friend of mine, but I’ve been put in this job. I was elected by Conservative Party members. I was elected to deliver for this country and ultimately, I have to make those decisions about what the right thing to do was, and I have made the right decision.

‘It was right that we changed policy. It’s right that we have a new Chancellor. And now what I’m determined to do is make sure that works.’ Asked whether the job had been tougher than she imagined, she said: ‘I was expecting it to be tough, and it has been tough I think it’s fair to say.’

It comes after Ms Truss said ‘sorry’ to Tory backbenchers tonight after weeks of chaos and economic catastrophe that have left the party facing a potential electoral collapse. 

In an apology to party moderates she admitted she had made a series of mistakes – after a day in which her economic plans were almost totally dismantled and her personal authority shattered. 

However, there was some dispute among those present at the meeting of the One Nation group of moderate Conservative MPs over whether Truss actually used the word ‘sorry’.

Simon Hoare, a backbencher told the Times she did not used the word. However, he praised her for a ‘very sincere’ apology, telling the paper: ‘I thought that the tone, the language that she adopted, indicated a clear apology, without… flagellating herself in the middle of the room.’

The PM faces an increasing struggle to survive following a breathtaking day of Westminster drama.  New Chancellor Jeremy Hunt tore up her flagship fiscal policies to ensure market ‘stability’, seizing control of the government’s agenda barely three days after he was parachuted into No11 to replace Ms Truss’s sacked ally Kwasi Kwarteng.

Alongside dropping the £32billion of slated tax cuts – including knocking 1p off the basic rate of tax from April – and slashing the energy bills bailout, he cautioned that ‘eye-watering’ spending curbs will be needed to balance the books, potentially as much as £40billion. 

Addressing the One Nation caucus in Westminster afterwards, Ms Truss ‘said I am sorry for some of the mistakes’ that had been made over the last couple of weeks, her press secretary told reporters. 

He denied Ms Truss had ever thought her time as PM was up at any point today and said she was still planning to fight the 2024 election.

However, it may now be too little, too late. An eyewatering opinion poll today gave Keir Starmer’s Labour Party a 36-point poll lead, its largest since the late 1990s. If it was realised at an election the Tories would face total humiliation. 

MPs warned it was already ‘all over’ after a bizarre day in which ministers were forced to deny that Ms Truss was hiding ‘under a desk’ while the bonfire of her policies took place. A fifth Conservative MP also publicly called on Ms Truss to resign as Prime Minister. Senior Tory backbencher Sir Charles Walker told Sky News that Ms Truss’s ‘position is untenable’.

Ms Truss is believed to have missed an urgent question in the House because she was holding urgent talks with Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories. 

She finally walked into the Commons moments before the Chancellor started laying out the dramatic U-turns this afternoon, sitting almost motionless for 30 minutes before scurrying out to shouts of ‘bye!’

Tonight Mr Hunt pleaded for Tories to give her time, insisting to Sky News she would still be in No10 at Christmas. Meanwhile, senior ministers arrived at Downing Street tonight ahead of a drinks reception for Cabinet this evening.

Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt and chief whip Wendy Morton arrived together at Downing Street this evening, while Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg told journalists that Liz Truss should ‘absolutely not’ resign and that she is ‘a very good Prime Minister’ as he arrived.

As Downing Street tries to mount a fightback, she ran the gauntlet of a meeting of moderate Tories – most of whom backed Rishi Sunak in the leadership contest, ‘One Nation has never been more popular,’ she quipped to journalists as she entered.

After leaving the meeting, Defence minister Alec Shelbrooke said the PM recognised the Government ‘hadn’t got the communication right’.

He said Ms Truss faced ‘direct’ and ‘tough’ questions from MPs but added she was ‘listened to’ by the group.

He revealed there was some ‘pushback’ over the PM’s enthusiasm for fracking, but said she assured MPs this would only take place with local consent.

Mr Shelbrooke said no MP asked if she would resign during the 45-minute meeting and she wasn’t asked about a reshuffle either.

Ms Truss was said to have spoken about the 2024 election, but the Tories’ current polling levels were not raised.

In a sign of the radical shift in the centre of gravity within the Conservative Party, Mr Hunt announced that he is creating a new council of economic advisers – including George Osborne’s former chief of staff Rupert Harrison. 

He even trashed Ms Truss’s previously firm stance against windfall taxes, saying he was not against imposing levies ‘in principle’ and they were not ‘off the table’. 

And he suggested that the triple lock on pensions could be back up for grabs, saying he was not ruling out any changes to make sure the UK can ‘pay its way’. 

Ms Truss earlier failied to turn up for an urgent question tabled by Keir Starmer beforehand. 

Standing in, Penny Mordaunt claimed she had ‘genuine’ reasons for not attending – although she refused to say what and No10 sources said it was merely due to ‘wall-to-wall meetings’. 

As the brutal exchanges continued in the House, more dire polls were emerging. A Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey had Labour on 56 per cent to just 20 per cent for the Tories – the biggest advantage for any party since Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide – and Deltapoll had a 32 point gap. 

Addressing the Parliamentary Labour Party tonight, Sir Keir Starmer said: ‘If ever you needed a sign of a dying government, it’s surely the return of Jeremy Hunt just in time for the horror show that is going to be their Halloween budget.

‘The man who butchered the NHS, risen from his political grave, shoring up this Night of the Living Dead government and taking his reaper’s scythe to what remains of public services after 12 years of the Tories.

‘It is a disgrace that working people are paying for a mess made entirely by the Tory Party but that is now their entire economic plan.’

Mr Hunt announced that rather than lasting two years, the energy price cap will be reviewed in April and replaced with ‘targeted’ help for the poorest.

That could mean households facing annual costs in line with the £3,500 Ofgem cap from next spring, instead of the current £2,500 level. 

The freeze on alcohol duty and VAT exemptions for tourists were demolished.  

Only the stamp duty reductions and cut to national insurance are safe – with the former already in force and legislation for the latter all-but through Parliament.

Of the £45billion of tax cuts boldly announced by Kwasi Kwarteng in the package that sparked market meltdown last month, £32billion has now been reversed. The freezing of tax thresholds combined with inflation rampant will result in Britons paying far more tax than before.

However, the respected IFS said the figures on departmental budgets due to be announced at Halloween are likely to be ‘scary’, with more than half the estimated £72billion hole in the public finances still to be filled. Mr Hunt rolled the pitch for additional pain, warning of ‘more difficult decisions’ to come ‘on both tax and spending’.

Less than a week ago Ms Truss was insisting there would ‘absolutely’ not be any spending cuts. 

The Pound spiked over $1.14 after the move emerged, while interest rates on government borrowing fell.

But Ms Truss is facing mounting fury from her own MPs. 

Fielding complaints about the PM’s absence during the UQ, Ms Mordaunt insisted she had been detained by ‘urgent business’ and had showed ‘courage’ by reversing her tax-cutting plans ‘in the national interest’.

Ms Truss had earlier tweeted to say the government is ‘charting a new course’ to boost ‘stability’. The Chancellor told a briefing for MPs that she had ‘backed him to the hilt’, arguing that voters will look ‘forward not back’ – a phrase that echoes the Labour election slogan from 2005.

Mr Hunt said: ‘We will reverse almost all the tax measures announced in the growth plan three weeks ago that have not started parliamentary legislation.’ 

He added: ‘This government will take whatever tough decisions are necessary.’ 

More MPs have been openly calling for her to go, while others are clearly incensed by the chaos.

Backbencher Ben Bradley tweeted: ‘Right back where we started, just far less popular than before.’

Senior MP Sir Charles Walker insisted there would not be a snap election, because polls suggest that the Tories would end up with fewer seats than the SNP.  

A former Cabinet minister told MailOnline: ‘The problem is that her advisers will doubtless be working on a plan to get her out of this, but totally oblivious to the fact that it is all over.

‘I think it will be Brady, putting pressure on her that the rules will be changed unless she goes. The Cabinet is full of her mates and supporters who are too weak to tell her to go.’

Another Tory veteran aide said: ‘It could only get worse for her if she cries in public. And we may yet get there.’ 

Despite jettisoning her closest ally along with her £18billion commitment to lower corporation on Friday, and now the rest of her mini-Budget, Ms Truss still looks in deep trouble. 

She held a Cabinet call this morning to lay out the scale of the policies she was ditching. 

Work and Pensions Secretary Chloe Smith was slated to do broadcast interviews this morning, but no Cabinet minister came out to shore up her position.

Mr Hunt is being openly described as the ‘de facto PM’ while around 100 MPs are said to have written to 1922 chief Sir Graham – who returned from holiday today – urging him to change party rules so the premier can be ousted.  

Mr Hunt, who yesterday insisted the PM was still ‘in charge’ despite forcing her to scrap her tax-cutting agenda, will be hoping markets can settle down and stop hiking interest on government debt.

Ms Truss had already abandoned her vow to abolish the top rate of tax and curbs to corporation tax, meaning almost nothing is left standing from her original package. 

The Pound rose sharply against the dollar and the euro, while the interests rates on gilts – bonds the government issues to borrow money – fell.

Mr Hunt said he is ‘not against the principle’ of windfall taxes, after calls from the Liberal Democrats to increase the levy on oil and gas profits.

On the triple lock for pensions – which means they rise by the highest out of inflation, earnings and 2.5 per cent – he told MPs: ‘I’m not making any commitments on any individual policy areas’. 

He refused to guarantee benefits will increase in line with inflation stressing he is not making ‘firm commitments’ on any individual elements of tax and spending. 

In a rare defence of a Truss approach, Mr Hunt endorsed lifting the cap on bankers’ bonuses, saying ‘we will get more tax from rich bankers with the policy we now have’. 

Mr Hunt said the basic rate of income tax will now stay at 20p until economic conditions allowed a reduction.

‘It is a deeply held Conservative value – a value that I share – that people should keep more of the money that they earn.

‘But at a time when markets are rightly demanding commitments to sustainable public finances, it is not right to borrow to fund this tax cut.’

Mr Hunt said the UK would always ‘pay its way’.

‘There will be more difficult decisions, I’m afraid, on both tax and spending as we deliver our commitment to get debt falling as a share of the economy over the medium term,’ he said.

‘All departments will need to redouble their efforts to find savings and some areas of spending will need to be cut.

‘But as I promised at the weekend, our priority in making the difficult decisions that lie ahead will always be the most vulnerable and I remain extremely confident about the UK’s long-term economic prospects as we deliver our mission to go for growth.’

Mr Hunt said there would be a ‘new approach’ on energy that will ‘cost the taxpayer significantly less’.

He said: ‘The biggest single expense in the growth plan was the energy price guarantee.

‘This is a landmark policy supporting millions of people through a difficult winter ad today I want to confirm that the support we are providing between now and April next year will not change.

‘But beyond that, the Prime Minister and I have agreed it would not be responsible to continue exposing public finances to unlimited volatility in international gas prices.

‘So I’m announcing today a Treasury-led review into how we support energy bills beyond April next year. The objective is to design a new approach that will cost the taxpayer significantly less than planned whilst ensuring enough support for those in need.

‘Any support for businesses will be targeted to those most affected and the new approach will better incentivise energy efficiency.’

Institute for Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson said: ‘Fiscal credibility is hard won but easily lost. Today’s announcements won’t be enough by themselves to plug the gap in the Government’s fiscal plans.

‘Nor will they be enough to undo the damage caused by the debacle of the last few weeks, but they are big, welcome, clear steps in the right direction.

‘It is also encouraging that, with most of the tax cuts abandoned, perhaps the most growth-friendly of them, the stamp duty cut and the increased annual investment allowance for corporation tax, remain. ‘

He warned that ‘Jeremy Hunt will still have to make some scary decisions on tax and spend this Halloween and it remains hard to see where significant spending cuts could come from’.

Mr Johnson said the plan to change the energy price guarantee was ‘especially welcome’ as ‘we need to do everything possible to put in place a better designed, better targeted and less expensive scheme next year’.

Downing Street is fighting a growing Tory bid to oust her this week, despite warnings that it could trigger a general election. 

So far four MPs have openly called for her to resign. 

Amid frenzied manoeuvring, there are claims that Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt could be put into No 10 and No 11 as part of a ‘coronation’ by MPs. 

Others think Mr Hunt may use his position to force himself into Ms Truss’ job.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has also been touted as a unity candidate, and some are even tipping Theresa May for a return. 

Sir Graham has just arrived back from holiday in Greece, with around 100 MPs said to be urging him to step in.

Under the existing party rules Ms Truss is exempt from a confidence vote for a year, but the 1922 committee executive does have the power to change that.

Guildford MP Angela Richardson said Ms Truss was ‘100 per cent’ to blame for the chaos.  

‘We saw those unfunded tax cuts. Had that not happened, the markets would not have responded the way that they did, we would not be seeing the fact that there’s potentially an extra £10billion that we’ve got to try and plug.

She added: ‘I believe that’s 100 per cent down to the Prime Minister, I’m afraid, and so I just don’t think that it’s tenable that she can stay in her position any longer and I’m very sad to have to say that.’

Conservative MP and former deputy PM Damian Green said Ms Truss was showing herself to be a ‘pragmatist’ but warned she will need to be a ‘klot more successful’ to survive.

Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if he wanted Ms Truss to lead the party into the next election, he said: ‘Yes, because if she leads us into the next election, that will mean that the next two years have been a lot more successful than the past four weeks have been.’

Another former minister, Victoria Atkins declined to say whether Ms Truss should lead the party into the next election.

‘She is the Prime Minister at the moment, we will not have an election for the next few years,’ she said.

‘I want her to get us back on to the right track, I want her to reiterate our concerns for our constituents and for compassionate One Nation values.’

Pressed again, Ms Atkins said: ‘If she’s able to bring those values to the fore then I’m very happy for her to do that.’

Former Tory chief whip Andrew Mitchell warned Ms Truss has just a fortnight left to save her premiership.

Challenged on Times Radio over whether the PM could lead her party into the next election, Mr Mitchell said: ‘I think the next two weeks will be critical in determining the answer to that question.’

The Sutton Coldfield MP downplayed the obstacles to removing the Prime Minister after October 31, when Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is due to set out his medium-term fiscal plan.

‘If over the next two weeks it becomes clear to the parliamentary party that the Prime Minister needs to change, or be changed, then the technicalities or the mechanism are not important,’ he said.

‘The wish of the parliamentary party will assert itself… if she cannot do the job, she will be replaced. I have no idea by who but we haven’t reached that stage yet.

‘The two weeks is a period in which the Government has the chance to get right the economic policies that the country… wants to see.’

Senior Tory backbencher Sir Charles Walker said Liz Truss’s position is ‘enormously precarious’ after abandoning almost her entire economic policy.

Sir Charles, a former vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs, told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One: ‘If there was a general election tomorrow – which there won’t be – we’d be a smaller party than the SNP.

‘We wouldn’t even be the party of opposition. That’s bound to concern colleagues – hundreds of colleagues.

‘The Prime Minister’s position is enormously precarious. When you are in this sort of position I think you have got to expect the party won’t tolerate for any length of time – certainly not weeks.’

North Thanet MP Roger Gale told Sky News: ‘I think Members of Parliament probably have a better perspective of both the economic situation and the personalities than the general membership.

‘For very good reason – we know them, we work with them day by day.

‘The general membership doesn’t and that’s understandable, and I don’t think we should expect – not even to blame – the membership for getting it wrong.’

Sir Roger, who did not vote for either Ms Truss or Rishi Sunak in the final leadership ballot, added: ‘It was not my choice, but we have to accept we live in a democracy, we accept the situation as it is.’

He said that replacing the Prime Minister would require a ‘coronation’, but noted that ‘at the moment I see no single agreed candidate within the party’.

Tory MP Andrew Bowie urged Ms Truss to appoint Rishi Sunak to the Cabinet again. 

‘I think that if we are going to bring the party back together, govern in the national interest and go on to do good things as a government (we should) demonstrate the ability to reach out across the divide within the party. That means having the best brains and the best talents within Government – that includes, obviously, Rishi Sunak.’

Liz Smith, finance and economy spokeswoman for the Scottish Conservatives at Holyrood, said that Ms Truss was ‘in an extremely difficult position’.

She said that Conservatives in the House of Commons may ‘coalesce around a candidate of unity’ if Ms Truss cannot turn things round.

With some Tory MPs having now publicly called for Ms Truss to go, Ms Smith said that ‘clearly it is civil war’ within the party.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, the senior Conservative MSP said: ‘I think the Prime Minister is now in an extremely difficult position.’

Ms Smith said that ‘any Prime Minister has to be able to command the confidence of the nation’ but added that Ms Truss has ‘difficulties on three fronts there’ – pointing to a lack of support from the financial markets, from the general public and from the Conservative Party within the UK Parliament.

‘That is a very serious situation for any prime minister to be in,’ the MSP continued.

‘So I think she has just days left to turn this round and if she can’t do that she would have to stand down.’

The Conservative MSP said of her party’s UK leader: ‘She is not being able to command the confidence of the nation, that any prime minister needs to be able to do. So I do think she has got days to turn this round.’ 

However, some MPs want to stick with Ms Truss.

One minister told MailOnline: ‘It’s a small group of Rishi acolytes causing all the problems.

Gavin Williamson, Mel Stride, Julian Smith… they have been manipulating the 1922, getting donors to cause trouble.

‘People need to realise this is what is riling up the markets. If they just shut the f*** up then things will calm down.

‘Rishi is not going to get it. Gavin wants to be back in the Cabinet. There’s no f****** way. We would be laughed out of town.’ 

Ms Truss held a political Cabinet call at 10am to discuss the decision to scrap the mini-budget measures.

The Chancellor set out the ‘worsening global economic situation, with interest rates rising around the world as monetary policy returns to a sense of normality’, a No 10 source said.

‘Because of this, the Government is adjusting its programme while remaining committed to long-term reforms to improve growth such as investment zones and speeding up infrastructure projects.’

The under-fire Prime Minister is set to meet with moderate Tory MPs this week in a bid to stave off a leadership coup, amid claims Conservative rebels are preparing to oust her as early as this week.

On Friday she drafted in Mr Hunt after she sacked previous Chancellor Mr Kwarteng only weeks after the announcement her Government intended to bring in £45billion of unfunded tax cuts in last month’s -mini-budget’.

That announcement spooked the markets, prompting the pound to plunge to its lowest ever level, mortgage rates to rise and a spike in how much it costs for the Government to borrow money.

After announcing a U-turn in her flagship cut to the 45p rate of income tax, Ms Truss has come under pressure to reverse a number of other measures in the plans.

Mr Kwarteng had originally planned to announce further details of spending and tax proposals in November, before bringing that forward to October 31 in a bid to quell unrest within the Tory party and in the markets. 

However, following his sacking by Ms Truss on Friday, Mr Hunt has taken over as the man responsible for the Government’s finances.

In an announcement this morning the Treasury said: ‘The Chancellor will make a statement later today, bringing forward measures from the Medium-Term Fiscal Plan that will support fiscal sustainability.

‘He will also make a statement in the House of Commons this afternoon.

‘This follows the Prime Minister’s statement on Friday, and further conversations between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor over the weekend, to ensure sustainable public finances underpin economic growth.

‘The Chancellor will then deliver the full Medium-Term Fiscal Plan to be published alongside a forecast from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility on 31 October.

‘The Chancellor met with the Governor of the Bank of England and the Head of the Debt Management Office last night to brief them on these plans.’

Mutinous backbench MPs are pressing Tory shop steward Sir Graham Brady to tell the Prime Minister her time is up, or change party rules to allow an immediate vote of confidence in her leadership.

As the Tories descended into yet another civil war, three MPs broke ranks to publicly call on Miss Truss to resign just six weeks into her premiership.

Former minister Crispin Blunt said: ‘The game is up and it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed.’

Sir Graham, chairman of the 1922 Committee, is said to be resisting an immediate putsch, arguing that the PM and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt deserve the chance to set out their economic strategy in a Budget on October 31.

But sources say that more than 100 MPs are ready to submit letters of no confidence in Miss Truss in a bid to force Sir Graham’s hand.

Some junior ministers are also discussing a wave of co-ordinated resignations of the kind that eventually forced out Boris Johnson. Rebels have even discussed holding a public vote of censure if Sir Graham refuses to act.

One MP involved in discussions about removing the PM said: ‘She has lost the confidence of the markets and she is haemorrhaging support. We need to cauterise the wound, and fast.

‘There is an overwhelming desire among colleagues for it to be over – people want it done this week.’

The briefing against the PM burst into the public arena yesterday, when Mr Blunt became the first Tory MP to call for her to go.

He said Ms Truss was ‘fatally damaged’ following last week’s decision to ditch her economic strategy and sack Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor in a bid to restore market confidence in the Government’s plans.

‘She has to go now as she cannot win nor sustain the confidence of her colleagues, far less the public and a relentless media,’ he said.

‘Her leadership campaign was clear and her policy proposition brave and bold. We have all seen how they have collided with today’s tough economic reality and not survived the impact.’

Fellow Tory Andrew Bridgen also called for the PM to go. Mr Bridgen, an inveterate plotter, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘We cannot carry on like this. Our country, its people and our party deserve better.’

Bridgend MP Jamie Wallis added: ‘Enough is enough.’ In a letter to the PM, he said her botched economic plan had caused ‘clear and obvious harm to the British economy’.

One senior MP who backed Ms Truss said that support was evaporating among her natural allies following the dizzying series of U-turns.

‘She has lost her nerve and she has lost her mandate,’ the former minister said.

‘Raising taxes, turning our back on economic growth is a huge mistake and she has no mandate for it whatsoever – it is the exact opposite of the agenda she won on. She is in pure survival mode now.’

But an ally of the PM hit back, warning that attempts at a ‘coronation’, in which warring Tories set aside their differences to agree a new leader, were doomed to fail –and would likely collapse the Government to trigger an election, which the party stands to lose heavily.

Mr Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Mr Wallace and Mr Hunt are seen as the most likely unity candidates, but rebel MPs are divided over who should lead, while some want Mr Johnson to return.

The ally of the PM warned that attempting to oust her could spark renewed turmoil on the financial markets. And he suggested the plan was deeply undemocratic, likening it to the People’s Vote campaign to overturn the result of the Brexit referendum.

‘The whole Conservative Party owes it to the British people to focus entirely on them and their needs,’ the source said.

Under Tory party rules, a new leader cannot face a formal leadership challenge for a year, regardless of how many MPs submit letters of no confidence.

Committee treasurer Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown told Sky News that the rules could be changed, but only ‘if it is clear that an overwhelming majority of the party wish us to do so’ – something he said was ‘a long way off’.

Sir Graham arrived back in the UK last night after a week in Greece and is expected to spend today taking soundings on Miss Truss’s future.

Meanwhile, Ms Truss will address the 100-strong One Nation caucus this evening in an effort to win round MPs. 

Many of the group, chaired by Mr Green, have complained about being excluded from a loyalist Government.

Former chief whip Andrew Mitchell, who backed Mr Hunt in the leadership contest, told the BBC: ‘The Conservative Parliamentary Party has always shown itself clear, and indeed ruthless, in making changes if required.

‘If the Prime Minister proves unable to govern effectively, she will have to stand down, and the parliamentary party will make that clear. But we should all be trying to help her to succeed and to get it right.’

Some Truss loyalists last night urged the rebels to calm down. Tory MP Michael Fabricant said: ‘The electorate do not vote for turbulent and divided political parties.

‘If some of my colleagues don’t calm down, stop plotting, and respect the will of the party members, we will lose the next general election.’