Liz Truss is set to face the toughest task of her short premiership as she makes her first Tory conference speech as leader.
The Prime Minister will seek to restore Tory morale after a conference which has seen a U-turn over a totemic tax policy, Cabinet dissent and the threat of another major split over the level of benefits.
Here, the PA news agency looks at what the nation’s papers have to say on the turbulence facing Ms Truss and her party.
The Daily Telegraph laments the impact that factional divides are having on the Conservative party, with associate editor Gordon Rayner questioning if the Tories have “now become ungovernable?”
He writes: “After 12 years in power, the party is so riven with factional divides, so full of disgruntled big beasts and so ill-disciplined that Ms Truss faces very real uncertainty about whether she can get any of her key policies through the House of Commons.
“The problem for Ms Truss, as with (Boris) Johnson and (Theresa) May, is that she has been thrown straight into the job of Prime Minister at a time when the party has started to take power for granted.
“In contrast, David Cameron had been leader in opposition for five years by the time he entered No 10, meaning he’d had time to mould the parliamentary party and went into government leading a party hungry for power and easily disciplined.”
In a leading article, The Times calls on Ms Truss to learn from the “chaos” of her early premiership.
“To restore her authority in the party and the country, she will need to acknowledge more fully than she has yet been prepared to do, that serious mistakes have been made,” the paper states.
“There are more than two years of this parliament left to run, which means she still has time to change perceptions. But to do that she needs to signal today that she understands that the single most important challenge facing her government now is to win back the confidence of voters and investors that the Conservative Party can be trusted with the stewardship of the economy.”
However, the Daily Mail places the blame for the party’s current turmoil squarely on the “rebellious MPs… already plotting to topple” the Prime Minister.
The paper says in an editorial: “This must stop. A paralysed Government benefits only Labour.
“Miss Truss understands perfectly that Britain’s prosperity depends on urgently jump-starting our lethargic economy.
“We wish her well today. We’d like nothing more than to hear a rousing, visionary speech that reimposes her authority, silences dissenters, and starts a new chapter for her premiership – and the country.”
The Daily Express is similarly in Ms Truss’s corner, as it calls on Tory MPs, voters and the wider public to get behind the PM’s “plan for Britain’s renewal”.
The paper comments: “Her vision of a much more prosperous United Kingdom is one that we can all get behind.
“It is extraordinary and regrettable that the first conference of Ms Truss’s premiership has been marred by talk of divisions and plotting.
“The country desperately needs the type of growth that she wants to deliver – and that requires political stability and clear leadership; every MP and minister has a role to play in restoring confidence in our economy and the UK’s future.
“Voters want their elected leaders to put the national interest first. Today, they should back Ms Truss’s plan for Britain’s renewal and cheer her on.”
