A grim-faced Rishi Sunak acknowledged the electorate’s “sobering verdict” after a calamitous night for the Conservatives saw Liz Truss and a dozen Cabinet members among more than 200 Tory MPs swept out of Parliament.
Penny Mordaunt and Grant Shapps, two would-be contenders to succeed Mr Sunak, were among high-profile ministerial casualties of the bloodbath along with veterans of the Boris Johnson era such as Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.
