49 days of chaos

The keys to 10 Downing Street

When Boris Johnson’s time as prime minister ended over the summer of 2022 - following a series of mishandled scandals and personal dramas - Liz Truss saw her chance. Despite holding the post of foreign secretary for less than a year, she had been prominent among western politicians in standing up to Russian President Vladimir Putin following his invasion of Ukraine and was considered to have done a decent job.

Rishi Sunak was the favourite among MPs. The chancellor had kept the economy ticking along during the Covid-19 pandemic and saved the jobs of millions of people with the unprecedented furlough scheme. He was slick, smart and had proven he could cope with whatever was thrown at him. But he had been fined for breaking lockdown rules alongside Mr Johnson and was not a shoo-in among party members who would ultimately decide the winner of the contest.

Having seen off the challenge from Penny Mordaunt, who had faced a barrage of opposition from right-leaning newspapers, Ms Truss made the final two and convincingly defeated Mr Sunak.

She performed confidently, if not spectacularly, in TV debates and hustings, but her promise to kickstart the economy, and give a “helping hand, not handouts” to those that needed it as the cost-of-living crisis squeezed household finances, pleased the 160,000 or so members of the Tory party, who are seen as being on the right of the party.

She became leader of the party on September 5, and travelled to Balmoral in Scotland the following day to accept what she described as a “kind invitation” from the queen to form a government.

Giving a speech in Downing Street, she said it was time to ”tackle the issues that are holding Britain back”. She would create an “aspiration nation”. She pledged to improve the NHS and tackle the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. But her major promise was the economy.

“I will get Britain working again,” she declared. “I have a bold plan to grow the economy through tax cuts and reform.

“I will cut taxes to reward hard work and boost business-led growth and investment.

“I will drive reform in my mission to get the United Kingdom working, building, and growing.”

Those words came back to haunt her.

Death of Queen Elizabeth

Less than 48 hours after becoming prime minister, her plans were derailed. On Thursday, September 8, she was told the queen’s death was imminent.

While setting out her plans in parliament to tackle the energy crisis, she was handed a note by Nadhim Zahawi, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, informing her that Buckingham Palace would shortly release a statement about the queen’s condition.

The moment was caught on camera and seen by the watching Westminster press pack, including The National’s Laura O'Callaghan, who realised the enormity of the situation.

The queen died later that day, leading Ms Truss to make her second speech to the nation from Downing Street. She described the queen as “the rock on which modern Britain was built … the very spirit of Great Britain”

She ended by saying that, with the passing of the second Elizabethan age, “we usher in a new era in the magnificent history of our great country – exactly as Her Majesty would have wished – by saying the words ‘God save the King’.”

The country then went into 10 days of mourning. Ms Truss dealt well with the situation publicly. Her words were seen to have been well judged and she kept a low profile while the royal family led the way.

But it meant any political honeymoon she may have hoped for was dashed. She could make no appointments or set out government business. She was left kicking her heels at a time when she was desperate to make an impact.

Down to business

Once the state funeral had taken place, Ms Truss dashed to New York to make her maiden speech at the UN General Assembly, where she made a point of saying she intended to grow Britain’s economy, alongside her protestations at Putin and his “barbarous weapons” being used to kill and maim.

Once back on home soil, she prepared to get back to business, working with her chancellor on the mini-budget, which would set out their growth agenda. She had railed against economic orthodoxy and wanted a "big bang" of measures to boost the economy

But the desperation to make up for lost time led the pair to make a crucial mistake. As she later admitted, she “went too far, too fast”.

Mr Kwarteng unveiled the biggest package of tax cuts in 50 years, to be paid for by government borrowing and mostly benefiting the better off. He reversed a planned national insurance rise, cut the basic rate of income tax and scrapped the top rate of income tax altogether. He capped energy bills at £2,500 ($2,824). “We need to focus on growth, not just how we tax and spend," he said, while reducing tax and spending more.

It came as a surprise to both their supporters and detractors. More damagingly, it spooked the markets. They had wrongly supposed that the markets would understand what they were setting out to do, having made it clear during the leadership campaign what her intentions were. She was wrong.

No one had been allowed to look over the books. The mini-budget had not been shown to the Office for Budget Responsibility. Mr Kwarteng’s promise to set out further details in a fiscal plan in November landed badly.

The mini-budget caused the pound to fall to almost parity with the dollar, while the cost of government borrowing and mortgage rates rose. The Bank of England was compelled to step in with a package of support to protect the pensions system which came perilously close to collapse. Its ability to rein in inflation was hampered by its supposed partners in Downing Street.

Instead of realising their mistake, they doubled down on it.

Mr Kwarteng gave a TV interview days later saying there was “more to come”.

Politically, so openly favouring the better off, was the first plank to cause damage. Despite giving a TV interview in which she declared she would not be changing her mind, she did.

She abandoned the plan to abolish the 45 per cent top rate of income tax in a screeching U-turn after her own backbenchers joined the market revolt.

Ten days after making the announcement, Mr Kwarteng made an early morning tweet, swiftly echoed by Ms Truss, announcing his plan was going into reverse.
“We get it, and we have listened” was their message. He said it had “become a distraction” from their growth mission.

Tories in trouble at party conference

Shelving one key, high profile policy was not enough.

Ms Truss and her under fire chancellor made their way to the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham for what should have been a raucous, back-slapping event in which she milked the applause for becoming prime minister and put fire in the bellies of supporters. It was anything but that.

She said she had three priorities: “Growth, growth and growth”. She pledged to set out more of her economic plans. She took a swipe at what she called the “anti-growth coalition” who were holding the country back.

“I’m not going to tell you what to do, or what to think, or how to live your life. I’m not interested in how many two-for-one offers you buy at the supermarket, how you spend your spare time, or in virtue signalling,” she said. She repeated the message that she had listened.

As The National’s Thomas Harding noted, her speech was muted, the applause short. The standing ovation half-hearted. The whisperings at side events, in hotel lobbies and nearby restaurants had begun. Ms Truss was not up to the job.

At that point in early October, it was not seen as realistic that she could be pushed out so soon. It was more that she would be a failure at the next general election and needed to drastically improve or there would be a landslide victory handed to Labour. But once people start muttering…

Call the financial fire brigade

The pressure continued. In fact, it grew heavier. The markets refused to behave as she wished and the following week the Bank of England twisted the knife. Its governor Andrew Bailey warned pension funds that they had three days to sort their liquidity issues before the bank pulled its support. “We will be out by the end of the week,” he said. The nation held its breath as the week counted down.

Ms Truss knew she had to act. She could not just sit in Downing Street and allow the markets to decide her fate. She needed to make the next move. So she fired Mr Kwarteng. After just 38 days in the job.

The “close friends” were separated and Mr Kwarteng, the Eton-educated former financial analyst, was made to carry the can.

Ms Truss installed Jeremy Hunt as her new chancellor, the former health secretary who had twice run for party leader, failing on both occasions. In appointing Mr Hunt, who had supported Mr Sunak in the leadership race, she hoped she would reach out to other sections of the party.

She described Mr Hunt as "one of the most experienced and widely respected government ministers and parliamentarians”, and importantly said he “shares my convictions and ambitions for our country".

She unsurprisingly did not highlight Mr Hunt’s comments earlier this year regarding tax.

"No Conservative should promise unfunded tax cuts. Because an unfunded tax cut is just an increase in borrowing that's paid for by future generations," he had warned.

Ripping up the plan

Mr Hunt set to work dismantling Mr Kwarteng’s mini-budget bit by bit. He was widely seen as the most important person in government.

He spent the weekend talking to Mr Bailey at the bank, and in the prime minister’s country residence Chequers with Ms Truss, setting out how he would have to trample over her ideas, and he went on television to try and give a reassuring message to the markets that he would be able to sort out the mess she had caused.

He gave an interview to the BBC insisting Ms Truss was still in charge, but nobody believed him.

"She's listened. She's changed. She's been willing to do that most difficult thing in politics, which is to change tack," he said.

The next day came the bombshell.

Before the markets opened, the Treasury issued a statement saying Mr Hunt would be making an emergency statement on the mini-budget later that morning before addressing the House of Commons with more details. In a pre-recorded address, he took an axe to the mini-budget. He reversed almost all the measures set out in Mr Kwarteng's tax giveaway, scaling back support for household energy bills and ditching promised tax cuts, saying the country needed to generate confidence and stability before it could seek to grow the economy. He signalled public spending cuts were on the way and there was the need to make “some eye-wateringly difficult decisions”.

Mr Hunt said: “No government can control markets but every government can give certainty about the sustainability of public finances, one of the many factors that influence how markets behave.”

He added: “Growth requires confidence and stability and the United Kingdom will always pay its way.”

The pound strengthened and UK government bonds rallied shortly after Mr Hunt laid siege.

Next came an even greater humiliation for Ms Truss in a stroke of political mischief-making from Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labour party.

He laid an Urgent Question in the House of Commons over her economic policy.

It meant Ms Truss would be forced to stand up before the chancellor to explain why she had got it so wrong, or risk hiding away. She hid.

She sent Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt instead, who did an admirable job defending her boss, while Mr Starmer  made hay on the other side of the Commons.

“The lady’s not for turning – up,” he shouted, gleefully riffing on a phrase by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – Ms Truss’s idol - who had famously told a Tory party conference she would not change course.

More humiliation followed. As The National’s Thomas Harding wrote in his sketch of the proceedings, laughter can be more damaging than abuse. And how the Labour benches laughed.

"I guess under this Tory government, everybody gets to be prime minister for 15 minutes," he said. He accused Ms Truss of being “scared of her own shadow.”

“Is she hiding under her desk?” Ms Mordaunt was asked.

He summed up the situation. "Once you've crashed the car at 100 miles an hour, you've damaged it for good and you're going to be paying much more on your insurance for years to come.”

That metaphor hit home.

Ms Mordaunt tried to explain that Ms Truss would be there if she could, but had “important business.” That business was the first of several meetings with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the influential 1922 Committee of backbenchers, who ultimately decide the fate of their leader. If enough letters of no confidence are handed in to Mr Brady, he can call a leadership election. And he gets to set the rules. He had done so for the contest earlier this year and although Ms Truss was supposedly protected from a no confidence vote for the first 12 months of her leadership, rules are there to be broken.

Ms Truss finally did slink into the Commons, as Ms Mordaunt was wrapping up her performance.

She then had to sit next to Mr Hunt while he effectively set out in even greater detail why everything she had done was wrong, and how he was putting it right.

From that point, the game was up.

Last days of Rome

The next few days brought more drama and chaos than most political watchers thought possible.

MPs plotted, they schemed. They came up with plans for a dream team of Rishi Sunak-Penny Mordaunt to replace her, they hoped Jeremy Hunt could take over as a steady hand on the tiller.

While the knives were out for Ms Truss, loyal Tories still hoped she could somehow cling on and save them the embarrassment of finding a new leader, their third this year. They were wrong.

Last Wednesday, on October 19, Ms Truss’s authority somehow plumbed even lower depths.

With the markets relatively calm and a new plan forged, it should have been time to grit her teeth and plough ahead.

Instead, she lost another Cabinet colleague and any remaining support she maintained was gone.

First, she had to endure Prime Ministers’ Questions, in which she said she was staying in post because she was “a fighter, not a quitter”.

Then she dispatched her home secretary, Suella Braverman. After what was described as a 90-minute screaming match between the home secretary, the PM and the chancellor over migration policy, Ms Braverman made a careless error. A security breach.

She made “a mistake” by sending an official document regarding migration policy via her personal phone and had to tender her resignation. For resignation, read “was sacked”.
In her leaving statement, Ms Braverman took a swipe at the prime minister, saying she had concerns over the direction of the government “breaking key pledges to voters” and not “honouring manifesto commitments”.

The champion of the Conservative right hinted that Ms Truss should consider her position as prime minister.
“Pretending we haven't made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can't see we've made them, and hoping things will magically come right is not serious politics,” she said.

Then came a Labour motion on fracking, which should have been easily dealt with but was turned into a vote of confidence in her government by the Tories. MPs were told it was a three-line whip – turn up or lose the whip and be thrown out of the party. 

Amid confusion over whether there had been a U-turn and speculation that Chief Whip Wendy Morton and her deputy Craig Whittaker had walked out, chaos ensued.

In extraordinary scenes at Westminster, Cabinet ministers Therese Coffey and Jacob Rees-Mogg were among a group of senior Tories accused of pressuring colleagues to go into the “no” lobby, with Labour former minister Chris Bryant saying some MPs had been “physically manhandled into another lobby and were being bullied”.
The following morning, the MPs lining up to condemn the scenes, and throw further shade on Ms Truss, grew.

Conservative MP Crispin Blunt said Ms Truss should resign.

Asked how he would describe her position, he said: “Wholly untenable. And if she doesn’t understand that then I would be astonished.”

Backbencher Simon Hoare described the scenes as pandemonium. It was possible Ms Truss could restore confidence but had about 12 hours to “turn the ship around”, he said.

Most damningly, Tory backbencher Sir Charles Walker became visibly emotional on TV, saying: “As a Tory MP of 17 years … I think it’s a shambles and a disgrace. I think it is utterly appalling. I’m livid.”

Time to go

Later that morning, Ms Truss called Sir Graham Brady and asked him for a meeting in Downing Street to “gauge the temperature” of party members. “Molten” may have come the response. During the meeting, where she was also joined by Tory party chairman Jake Berry, they thrashed out a plan for her departure and the way in which she would be replaced.

Since Brexit and the departure of Boris Johnson, after 60 senior colleagues resigned, the Tory party has been divided. This makes finding one candidate they can all agree on nigh on impossible, especially when party members do not necessarily agree with MPs about who would make the best leader.

But agree a plan they did, and shortly before 1.30 pm on Thursday, October 20, the “lectern of doom” was placed in the road in Downing Street in preparation for Ms Truss’s resignation speech.

She announced she was standing down as prime minister of the UK, saying she could not “deliver her mandate” as leader.

She said a short leadership contest “will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plan and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security”.

There was one final ignominy: she was outlasted by a lettuce.

Ms Truss has been in a race with the rotting vegetable since The Economist remarked on October 11 that her shelf life was proving shorter than that of a lettuce.

In a comedy stunt, the Daily Star set up a live stream of a head of lettuce, decorated with a wig, next to a photo of Ms Truss.

“Will Liz Truss outlast this lettuce?,” was the strapline for seven days as Ms Truss's authority spectacularly collapsed.

After Ms Truss announced her resignation, her photo was placed face down, “God Save The King” rang out and the strapline read: “This lettuce outlasted Liz Truss”.

The shortest-serving political leader in the country's history will now make way for Rishi Sunak, the new occupant of Downing Street, whose first challenge will be to last more than 49 days.