Liz Truss and her new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt face a make-or-break week as they try to win support from the markets and the Tory party amid calls for her to go.
As the PM and her Chancellor held crisis talks at Chequers, trying to find a way to stem the economic fallout from the mini-Budget, Crispin Blunt broke ranks to demand Ms Truss go.
He said: “I think the game is up and it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed.”
On Channel 4 ’s Andrew Neil Show, he said if enough Tory MPs turned against her, the PM would go. He said “Exactly how it is done, exactly under what mechanism... but it will happen.”
Within hours, a second Tory MP, Andrew Bridgen, called on Ms Truss to quit. He told The Telegraph: “We cannot go on like this. Our country, its people and our party deserve better.”
And last night a third Tory MP, Jamie Wallis, revealed he had written to the PM asking her to stand down.
He posted: “The government has undermined Britain’s economic credibility & fractured our Party irreparably. Enough is enough.”
Lord Frost, who backed Ms Truss’s leadership bid, messaged the Thatcherite Conservative Way Forward group of MPs, saying: “It would be good to meet”. He added: “Things look bleak.”
Another Tory MP, Robert Halfon, accused the government of acting like “libertarian jihadists” who had “treated the whole country as laboratory mice”. Talking on Sky News, he declined to deny MPs wanted a new leader.
He said: “Colleagues are unhappy. We’re all talking to see what can be done about it.”
Tory heavyweights also waded in, ex- Chancellor George Osborne saying: “She is PINO – Prime Minister In Name Only.”
And Michael Portillo, an ex-Tory minister, told GB News: “She has lost all authority, irredeemably. I feel that the markets have decided that she’s not up to the job.”
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The markets face a crunch day today, when trading in government bonds resumes without being propped up by the Bank of England.
The Bank had to buy up bonds to stop pension funds collapsing due to last month’s mini-Budget.
Mr Hunt, who on Friday replaced Kwasi Kwarteng, has refused to rule out further U-turns and is expected to ditch a 1p income tax cut.
He told the BBC ’s Laura Kuenssberg: “We’re going to have to take some very difficult decisions on spending and on tax.” He said all government departments faced cuts.
The Office for Budget Responsibility has reportedly identified a £72billion black hole in the public finances, even greater than the £62billion outlined by the Institute for Fiscal Studies last week.
Ms Truss will face the Cabinet tomorrow, when she and Mr Hunt will outline their plans to stop the economic turmoil.
A senior backbencher suggested MPs would wait until after Mr Hunt presents his new financial plan on October 31 to decide whether to force Ms Truss out.
They told the Mirror: “Her future rests largely in her hands. She needs to show she can deliver.”
The Labour Party is capitalising on the crisis, with new adverts attacking the Tories, one of them showing Liz Truss and Jeremy Hunt as clowns.
Mr Starmer said Ms Truss was “in office, but not in power”.
In good news for Mr Starmer, Labour’s ideas for growth have been hailed as “actionable and attractive” by Tesco chairman John Allan.
