Liz Truss is battling to keep her position as Prime Minister following a chaotic 24 hours which saw a Cabinet minister resign and an open revolt in the Commons.
The events of Wednesday saw Suella Braverman lash out at Ms Truss's "tumultuous" premiership as she resigned and accused the Government of "breaking key pledges" including on immigration policy. Her departure, coming just five days after Kwasi Kwarteng's sacking as chancellor, means the Prime Minister has lost two people from the four great offices of state within her first six weeks in No 10.
Following Ms Braverman departure, there was speculation that Chief Whip Wendy Morton and her deputy, Craig Whittaker, had resigned in fury at the handling of a vote on a Labour motion over fracking. However, at 9.49pm - more than two hours after the vote - No 10 issued a statement saying both remained in post.
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Will Liz Truss face a no-confidence vote?
There are rumours that the chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, has already received more than 54 letters calling for a confidence vote in the Prime Minister, the threshold for triggering one. However, the rules of the 1922 Committee state that the Prime Minister cannot face a vote during their first year in office.
Will Liz Truss resign?
If she is forced to resign, that could trigger a leadership contest - something the party may be keen to avoid, given that the fallout from the race between Ms Truss and Rishi Sunak is partly to blame for the toxic atmosphere within the Tory ranks.
It could be possible for the 1922 Committee to engineer the rules to ensure that only candidates with a very large number of MPs supporting them could go through - something which could, in effect, result in a coronation if the threshold was so high that only a single contender emerged.
That would avoid the need for a lengthy contest involving party members across the country casting votes.
Will there be an early general election?
The Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 'revived the power of the monarch to dissolve Parliament' when it replaced the Fixed-term Parliaments Act. This effectively means the current government can decide when to call a general election.
The maximum term of a Parliament is five years from the day on which it first met. The current Parliament first met on Tuesday, December 17 2019 and will automatically dissolve on Tuesday 17 December 2024, unless it has been dissolved sooner.
However it's unlikely, looking at the polls, that Conservative MPs would want to call one. According to a survey by Redfield and Wilton Strategies, Labour has opened up a 36-point poll lead, the largest for any party since October 1997.
An election can also be triggered if a Government loses a confidence vote in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister would be expected either to resign, or to request a dissolution of Parliament from the King.
If a dissolution is granted, it triggers a general election. Again, this would be unlikely as the Tories would have to vote against their own Government.
What are Liz Truss' options now?
Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the Government is seeking to provide stability and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt should be given the time to set out his financial plans at the end of October. But a senior MP said Ms Truss has just hours to turn the situation around following the chaos in Parliament on Wednesday.
Ms Trevelyan said she believes "at the moment" it is "still the case" that Ms Truss will fight the next election as Prime Minister. On Times Radio, Ms Trevelyan said: "I'm looking forward to Jeremy Hunt delivering his statement at the end of the month, and to help us all to be able to get on with delivering our departmental budgets."
But when asked if Ms Truss is "up to the job", senior backbencher Simon Hoare said: "I think she could be. I think it's... one can't say hand on heart today that there is a... if this was a career review, an employer sitting in front of a person looking at performance and outcomes etc, then the score sheet isn't looking very good.
"But I'm a glass-half-full sort of person. Can the ship be turned around? Yes. But I think there's about 12 hours to do it. I think today and tomorrow are crunch days."
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