Liz Truss has announced her resignation as prime minister just 45 days into the job, leaving her the shortest-lived occupant of 10 Downing Street in British history.
Ms Truss’s disastrous reign began on 6 September, encompassed the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, but will be remembered for Kwasi Kwarteng’s wildly misguided tax-slashing, heavy-borrowing “min-Budget”.
The uncosted Truss-Kwarteng fiscal programme only served to spook global financial markets, tank the pound, prompt a warning from the IMF and forced the Bank of England to bailout pension funds by buying up government debt to the tune of £65bn.
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A number of embarrassing U-turns followed, the chancellor was sacked on 14 October after being humiliated on the world stage with an early recall from a meeting in Washington, DC, to be replaced by Jeremy Hunt, who went on to tear up the rest of the Budget and, with it, Ms Truss’s slim credibility as leader.
The resignation of home secretary Suella Braverman followed five days later along with an unedifying melee in the Commons during a vote on fracking, prompting many Tories to call time on the former foreign secretary’s blunder-ridden tenure.
Following her resignation announcement on Thursday lunchtime, her rivals began to weigh up fresh leadership bids, with the likes of Mr Hunt, Michael Gove and Ben Wallace quick to rule themselves out and Boris Johnson eventually aborting a Berlusconi-esque comeback bid despite rushing back from a luxury holiday in the Dominican Republic to canvas support from MPs.
It now looks like being a straight fight between Rishi Sunak, who was so right about Ms Truss’s “fairy tale” tax follies, and Commons leader Penny Mordaunt.
As to how the process will play out, Ms Truss said in her statement – which followed a private meeting with 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady – that a new PM would be in place by the end of this week.
Sir Graham subsequently elaborated that this meant Friday 28 October, if not before.
“We are deeply conscious of the imperative in the national interest in resolving this quickly,” he told reporters in Westminster.
“I have spoken to the party chairman Jake Berry and he has confirmed that it will be possible to conduct a ballot and conclude a leadership election by Friday 28 October.
“So we should have a new leader in place before the fiscal statement which will take place on the 31.”
After a tiresome and drawn-out contest in July and August in which a huge field was eventually whittled down by MPs to just two – Ms Truss and Mr Sunak – before the party membership voted, this next attempt promises to be a much simpler and swifter affair.
However, a scaled-back approach risks angering the party base by denying it a say in proceedings this time around.
Sir Graham indicated early that he expected the contest to be a two-horse race, which appears to have been borne out, with candidates required to prove by 2.30pm on Monday that they have the support of at least 100 parliamentary colleagues.
So far, only Mr Sunak appears to have that degree of support, suggesting he could be crowned the new Tory leader and Britiain’s next PM as early as today, removing the need for any further votes on the matter.
But if the Conservatives cannot find themselves a unity candidate within a week, however, the clamour for a general election is likely to grow ever-louder.
