Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has stepped up calls for an immediate general election as he accused the Tories of unleashing "chaos".
In a message to Rishi Sunak, who was crowned Tory leader a fortnight ago, he said the Government "does not have a shred of credibility left".
Addressing party members in central London, he said it is "obvious" the country needs a general election, adding: "The British people demand one".
In his keynote speech, Sir Ed claimed the new Prime Minister "knows he'd lose" a snap vote as he cited shock Lib Dem by-election victories in the last year.
He added: "Well, being scared of the Liberal Democrats isn’t a good enough reason to deny the British people their say.
"This is the guy who, two years ago, was telling us all 'eat out to help out'.
"Well our message to the Conservatives is this: 'Help out by clearing out'."
Since Liz Truss resigned as Prime Minister after 49 days in No10, almost 150,000 people have signed The Mirror's petition demanding a general election.
The Liberal Democrat leader also used his speech to accuse the Conservatives through the disastrous mini-Budget of creating a "mortgage crisis".
"Instead of tackling the cost-of-living crisis seriously, they chose to treat the British economy as their own personal playground - using people as playthings in their reckless game of fantasy economics," he said.
"Just look at the damage... millions of families struggling to pay a Conservative property penalty, every single month.
"Never again can the Conservatives claim to be the party of homeowners. Never again can they claim to be the party of business.
"Never again can they claim to be the party that balances the books.
"The Conservatives are the party of chaos."
It came as Sir Ed called for a £3billion mortgage protection fund that would give homeowners grants of £300 a month if their repayments have increased by 10%.
He said it would cover the extra costs for families seeing their payments rise most sharply and from "falling into serious arrears or even facing repossession".
The Lib Dem leader delivered his autumn speech after the party were forced to cancel their annual conference in September following the death of the Queen.
