Liz Truss is finished. Her authority as prime minister is spent. The government she formed six weeks ago no longer exists and Britain needs a general election to choose a new one. Last week, the chancellor was sacked for enacting the prime minister’s will in a “mini-budget” that destroyed the UK’s credibility on global markets. On Wednesday, Suella Braverman, the home secretary, left the cabinet too, ostensibly over a security breach, although the departure suggests more profound clashes over policy and personnel at the heart of government.
No 10 has lost control. Neither of the replacement secretaries of state in Whitehall’s two most powerful departments – Jeremy Hunt at the Treasury and Grant Shapps at the Home Office – backed Ms Truss’s campaign over the summer. Her project is over. Discipline has collapsed. The cabinet is a caretaker administration, minding the shop while a new leader is chosen. Except Ms Truss is somehow still there. That anomaly must be ended.
