Liz Truss is fighting for her political life as the fallout from her disastrous “mini-Budget” continues.
The powerful 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers – which organises leadership contests – has already reportedly held secret talks about removing the prime minister.
Jeremy Hunt, who Ms Truss appointed as chancellor after dispatching her “friend” Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday, is one of the names being suggested to take over.
Others include Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor who lost out to Truss in the last leadership race – Commons leader Penny Mordaunt and defence secretary Ben Wallace.
Since Ms Truss failed to win back the support of her colleagues following a press conference after sacking her chancellor, the conversation among many Tory MPs has turned to when, not if, she will be removed.
Further economic U-turns, a brutal Prime Minister’s Questions, the resignation of Suella Braverman as home secretary and a particularly chaotic Commons vote on fracking on Wednesday evening – which may or may not have been a vote of confidence on the PM, may or may not have seen the resignation of chief whip Wendy Morton and her deputy Craig Whittaker and may or may not have involved MPs being physically manhandled into voting with the government – have only ramped up the sense of crisis.
A number of MPs have already put their heads above the parapet to publicly call for Ms Truss to resign.
Below, we look at those who have already made it clear that it is time for (yet another) new Tory leader.
Crispin Blunt
Crispin Blunt, MP for Reigate, was the first out of the blocks in calling for Ms Truss to quit. His intervention came on 16 October.
“I think the game is up and it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed,” Mr Blunt told Channel 4's Andrew Neil Show.
Mr Blunt was first elected to parliament in 1997 and served as a justice minister from May 2010 to 2012.
Earlier this year, he said he would stand down at the next election, after being criticised for his defence of Imran Ahman Khan, who was jailed for sexually assaulting a teenage boy. He said Mr Khan’s conviction was a “serious miscarriage of justice”.
Andrew Bridgen
Next to publicly voice his disquiet over Ms Truss's premiership was serial rebel Andrew Bridgen, the MP for North West Leicestershire. Mr Bridgen also spoke out on 16 October.
“We cannot carry on like this,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “Our country, its people and our party deserve better.”
He was first elected to parliament in 2010 and was one of the first MPs to call for the resignation of Boris Johnson, who resigned as party leader and PM earlier this year.
In April, a judge ruled that Mr Bridgen lied under oath in a case about a family financial dispute. He described the ruling as “disappointing reading for me” but said that he won the case.
Jamie Wallis
Bridgend MP Jamie Wallis was the last to publically call for Ms Truss to resign on Sunday.
“In recent weeks, I have watched as the government has undermined Britain’s economic credibility & fractured our party irreparably,” he wrote in a letter to Ms Truss and posted to his Twitter page.
“Enough is enough,” he added. “I have written to the prime minister to ask her to stand down as she no longer holds the confidence of this country.”
Mr Wallis was elected in December 2019 and is a member of a number of committees.
Angela Richardson
The MP for Guildford has since become the fourth Tory member of Parliament to call for Ms Truss to go, telling Times Radio her position was “untenable”.
“We saw those unfunded tax cuts,” she said. “Had that not happened, the markets would not have responded in the way that they did, we would not be seeing the fact that there’s potentially an extra £10bn pounds [in borrowing costs] that we’ve got to try and plug.
“And 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.”
Sir Charles Walker
Sir Charles Walker was fifth, telling Sky News that Ms Truss’s “position is untenable” on the evening of Monday 17 October.
He said: “She has put colleagues, the country, through a huge amount of unnecessary pain and upset and worry. We don’t need a disruptor in No 10. We need a uniter.”
The dire state of affairs “can only be remedied” by “a new prime minister,” he added.
Sir Charles said Ms Truss had another “week or two” before stepping down or being forced to resign, adding that he is “so cross” about how “catastrophically incompetent” her government has been.
William Wragg
The MP for Hazel Grove and vice chair of the 1922 Committee told the House of Commons on 19 October that he had submitted a letter of no confidence in Ms Truss’s wayward leadership.
He said he was “personally ashamed” by what occurred after the mini-budget and cannot tell his greater Manchester constituents that “they should support our great party”.
“The lack of foresight by senior members of the government, I cannot easily forgive,” he added.
He also said he found the “trashing” of the reputations of the Bank of England and the Office of Budget Responsibility during the Tory leadership contest to be “near Maoist in its nature”.
Johnny Mercer
The Plymouth Moor View MP, who had claimed earlier in the week that Ms Truss had “laughed” when she sacked him as minister for veterans’ affairs when appointing her new Cabinet, inspiring a bout of depression, likewise called for her to go following the events of Wednesday, perhaps unsurprisingly.
Maria Caulfield
The aforementioned Sir Charles Walker absolutely outdid himself in another interview with the BBC on Wednesday night from the lobby in which he said he was “furious” with the “shambles” playing out and insisted there was “no coming back” for Ms Truss’s government.
“I expect the prime minister to resign very soon because she's not up to her job,” he added, railing against the lack of talent among the careerists in her Cabinet.
“Tonight we are all Charles Walker,” tweeted his colleague Maria Caulfield in reference to the clip in question, which immediately went viral, the MP for Lewes therein endorising his sentiments (Mr Mercer did likewise).
Steve Double
Mr Double became the eighth Conservative MP to call for Ms Truss to go in an interview with BBC Radio Cornwall on 20 October.
“She’s [Ms Truss] not a fighter... I think she’s doing everything she can to hang on,” he said.
Mr Double is the MP for St Austell and Newquay. He was first elected to office in 2015.
In a separate interview on the previous day, he said Ms Truss’s position had become “increasingly untenable”.
Gary Streeter
Not long after, South West Devon’s MP Gary Streeter tweeted in dismay that the PM must go but warned that even the archangel Gabriel would struggle to lead a party so ill-disciplined.
Sheryll Murray
Mr Streeter’s colleague Sheryll Murray, MP for South East Cornwall, tweeted her agreement with him within the hour.
“I had high hopes for Liz Truss but after what happened last night her position has become untenable and I have submitted a letter to Sir Graham Brady,” she said.
Miriam Cates
By this point, the trickle was becoming a flood, reminiscent of the final days of Boris Johnson when the 24-hour news channels had “resignation counters” fixed to the bottom of our television screens.
“I think it's time for the PM to go," the MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge told Matt Chorley on Times Radio as she became the 12th revolter to come forward.
Henry Smith
On the very same programme, the MP for Crawley added his voice to growing clamour, declaring: “We need new leadership… we need solid leadership, and I'm afraid I'm very sorry to say that has been distinctly lacking from Downing Street in the last several weeks.”
Matthew Offord
Speaking to the Evening Standard on Thursday morning, the Hendon Conservative MP said: “I can’t see the situation being sustainable.
“She does need to sit down and discuss it with her Cabinet and with others to manage some kind of dignified exit.”
