Even when their careers go down in flames, Tory Prime Ministers can usually rely on one thing.
Their MPs show unity to hungry journalists by banging on desks in Parliament.
In Wednesday night’s meeting of the 1922 Committee, MPs did thump their desks.
But there was one big problem.
Many of them weren’t doing it for Liz Truss - but for the Tory MPs laying into her, two sources told the Mirror.
Ms Truss pleaded with MPs to defend her mini-Budget after it promised sweeping tax cuts funded by borrowing - creating a £60bn black hole.
But she was pelted by “machine-gun fire ” from backbenchers who don’t usually go on the attack, a witness said.
One, Rob Halfon, warned she had trashed 10 years of blue collar Conservatism.
Another, James Cartlidge, raised questions about how people would afford their mortgages. MPs thumped in his support.
Anger only mounted as she appeared “surprised” at the scale of her MPs’ despair, a witness said.
“It was worse than anything I’ve seen, including under Theresa May,” said another witness.
Floods of MPs in the last 36 hours have come forward to voice utter despair in their leader - just 37 days since she took office.
A former Cabinet minister told the Mirror “regime change” could happen if things don’t improve soon.
A second former Cabinet minister told us: “Something has to happen. This situation cannot carry on.
“Whether that's a policy change or that's a personnel change I don't know yet.”
As no-confidence letters trickle in to the 1922 Committee a third former Cabinet minister, Julian Smith, tweeted his intentions.
“Confidence /ˈkɒnfɪd(ə)ns/. noun. The feeling or belief that one can have faith in or rely on”, he said ominously.
And ex-minister Nadine Dorries decided to help Liz Truss in perhaps the most unhelpful way possible.
“MPs circulating a smorgasboard of names re who should replace Truss as PM,” she said, revealing they exist, “are not taking into account the fact that they cannot foist upon the British public another Prime Minister that the public have not voted for.
“A totally untenable position. “
Technically Liz Truss can’t be ousted until September 2023 under the rules of the Tory 1922 Committee.
But multiple Tory MPs told us the rules don’t matter - as both Theresa May and Boris Johnson were brought down despite them.
A crestfallen Tory MP warned Liz Truss’s “authority is seeping away in front of us” and she could be forced from power.
“There are three or four forces going round at the moment that could collide dramatically and the whole thing could fall apart,” they told the Mirror.
The MP said 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady could end up having to tell her privately that her Budget would not get through, or even that she’d lost her parliamentary party’s support.
She could become “an empty vessel in Downing Street”, the MP warned.
Asked if claims Liz Truss could be ousted after barely a month were melodramatic, the MP replied: “It’s not melodramatic.
“It’s dramatic but it’s serious and it’s bleak for her.”
MPs told us Liz Truss has left herself in a hole over the economy after promising tax cuts, but no cuts to public spending.
That left her three choices.
Either she U-turn on some of her tax cuts, slash hard-pressed public spending, or carry on and drive the economy over a cliff.
Sure enough, on Thursday, it emerged talks had begun in No10 about U-turning on a £19bn-a-year corporation tax cut.
In bizarre scenes, Downing Street insisted “our position hasn’t changed” - but could not rule out it changing in a few hours’ time.
Liz Truss’s top ally and neighbour Kwasi Kwarteng, who was in the US, insisted he would still be Chancellor this time next month.
“Absolutely,” he said. “100%. I’m not going anywhere!”
But a former Cabinet minister warned the Mirror: “It's difficult to see, if there's a significant change to the Budget, how the Chancellor could remain in position."
The ex-minister added “I don’t know, I genuinely don’t” if Liz Truss can pull round her leadership even if there is a big U-turn.
Another ex-minister warned if MPs feel they will lose their seats, “they will move from a feeling of despair that they're currently in, not knowing what to do, into being angry and wanting to do something.
"Before regime change it would have to move from despair to anger."
Multiple Tory MPs have talked to us about their fears of a catastrophic election loss as polls put Labour over 20 points ahead.
A former Cabinet minister said: “People were concerned that we could lose the election - that's one thing.
“But being wiped out is another thing.”
A backbench MP said: “People are looking at opinion polls which say we’re facing a catastrophic defeat.
“They’re asking if we lose 50 seats or 200.”
A different former Cabinet minister said: "People are talking about how we can minimise our losses - double figures rather than triple figures in 2024.
“People feel very exposed, very nervous. Even people with 12,000, 14,000 majorities."
That ex-minister said “the question has been raised" about a "consensus candidate" that could replace Liz Truss and spare the need for a drawn-out leadership contest - though they played down the idea of a Rishi Sunak / Penny Mordaunt joint ticket, floated by Tory bible ConservativeHome.
“It’s a very serious situation afoot,” they said. “People are exasperated.
“It goes back to the process of election, in which four consecutive ballots of MPs chose a different leader than the one the party ended up with.”
They voiced hope that a U-turn will save the current government, but added: “There’s been a lot of talk about rules and the fact that it’s very difficult to see a way forward.”
Embattled Liz Truss left her Tory critics cold as she told MPs to focus on her energy bills bailout instead at Wednesday’s 1922 Committee.
The PM urged her backbenchers to “highlight the devastation” that would have happened if bills had hit £6,000 a year.
But MPs were grim-faced coming out of the 45-minute meeting. Asked if it was positive one replied: “It… it happened”.
Asked if he was reassured, another just laughed.
One MP told me Tories were “shifting in their seats” uncomfortably as the PM spoke on interest rates and mortgages.
“She essentially said she gets that it’s tough, but interest rates have been historically low,” the baffled MP said.
“We can’t sell this on the doorstep!”
We did manage to find a Tory supporter of Liz Truss.
They branded their colleagues “pathetically hysterical” and said they have a “death wish”.
“It’s not as bad as everyone makes out,” they said. “They just need to get balance and a sense of proportion.”
The MP admitted Liz Truss faced a hostile reception, with no MPs thought to have asked supportive questions.
But they said: “I’m not a fan of patsy questions anyway. Big deal.
“People were asking honest questions and airing concerns - this is what grown-ups do in the political world.
“It wasn’t stage-managed. I’m not really interested in the success of a leader being dependent on whether they can arrange grovelling, sycophantic questions.”
Not everyone had such a sympathetic view.
But some do believe she can pull it round.
A veteran Tory MP said: "The lady has been in power for less than six weeks and clearly some grim mistakes have been made.
“It is very early days but it seems to me that having elected to appoint a new PM and remove Boris Johnson, they are obliged to give her a chance."
The senior backbencher said: "I think she probably has time to turn things around but it depends what she does.
"She's in a difficult position because she wasn't the parliamentary party's choice.
“The parliamentary electorate is the most devious, Machiavellian and dishonest in the world - but we do know how many people backed her.
“There are lots of people who are bitter and holding onto grudges."
Even fellow Cabinet ministers were feeling the heat today as questions mounted over the PM’s leadership.
Journalists attending Work and Pensions Secretary Chloe Smith's first big speech were told: “The Secretary of State is not going to want to answer questions on this morning’s announcement about the mini-Budget.”
And after an image of her grumpy in the Commons went viral, Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt told MPs: “My resting face is that of a bulldog chewing a wasp.
“People shouldn’t read too much into that.”
Ex-Chancellor George Osborne, who U-turned on tax credit cuts and the pasty tax, might have summed up what’s to come.
“Given the pain being caused to the real economy by the financial turbulence, it’s not clear why it is in anyone’s interests to wait 18 more days before the inevitable u-turn on the mini budget”.
Whatever Liz Truss - or MPs - decide to do, it feels like we won’t have long to wait.
