In the end, Liz Truss lasted less than seven weeks in the job. Never the first choice of Tory MPs, the decisions she made as prime minister finished her off at record pace.
She will be, by some distance, the United Kingdom’s shortest-ever serving prime minister. Her allies promised “shock and awe” when she entered Number 10, but few predicted that she would turn Westminster into such a disaster zone.
Today, there’s a collective sense of shock, rather like the aftermath of a car crash, where you emerge from the wreckage dazed and confused, asking yourself what just happened.
In the case of the Truss administration, the question is how on earth did the wheels come off the government so quickly and spectacularly? And what does that mean for the Conservative Party, our politics and the country now?
The central mistake of Liz Truss was to treat the business of government rather like a continuation of her election campaign. She made all sorts of promises to party members – on tax cuts and on spending commitments in order to win them over. When she entered Number 10, she didn’t recalibrate or compromise.
I remember the interview I did with her just days before her mini-budget at the top of the Empire State Building in New York when she told me, “I am prepared to be unpopular,” in order to push through her economic plan. She perhaps thought it was a show of strength. It turned out to be incredibly foolhardy.
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It led to fatal errors that cost Ms Truss her job. Instead of consulting the markets, taking soundings from the Treasury, or even gauging the views of her cabinet properly, she and her then chancellor Kwasi Kwateng unleashed £45bn of unfunded tax cuts on the markets in a mini-budget that went even further than she had signalled in her leadership race.
I had thought when Ms Truss became prime minister, she might have stuck to commitments on tax cuts but staggered them in a way that might have been more palatable to the markets.
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She did not, and she paid a heavy political price over the following weeks. Forced to U-turn on plans to scrap the 45p rate of tax, then sacking her chancellor before the incoming one, Jeremy Hunt, just about junked her entire economic plan. By Monday this week, it was clear that Liz Truss was a Prime Minister without a policy platform and out of control of her party.
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3:41
As Liz Truss resigns as prime minister, we take a look back on her political journey.
But the British public was also paying the price for her reckless decisions, with interest rates rising faster than had been anticipated before that mini-budget amid a cost of living crisis in which inflation hit a record 40-year high in September.
She has become one of the UK’s most unpopular prime ministers in the space of just a few weeks – with just one in ten Britons satisfied with her leadership. An unrecoverable position, it was clear to me after that fateful press conference where Ms Truss sacked her chancellor that the game was up – what was less clear was how it would end.
That ending was accelerated by the chaos of the fracking vote on Thursday night. Ahead of that horror show, senior influential figures in the party had told me that there was no appetite to remove Ms Truss before the critical fiscal statement on October 31.
Image: Pics: REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
They worried this could further unsettle markets: “The media mood I think is more febrile that the parliamentary mood,” one person familiar with the discussions of the 1922 committee told me soon after PMQs.
But that all changed after the evening of chaos, confusion of whips’ resignations and altercations in the voting lobbies between Conservative MPs.
“Everything that happened today could have been avoided, if it had been better managed,” remarked one wise former cabinet minister to me late on Wednesday night. “They didn’t have to create crisis points in terms of whipping votes. That they did is a symptom of where we are.”
But it did trigger a crisis – one which took a life of its own. As Boris Johnson said of his own infamous demise, “when the herd moves, it moves.” The momentum built and the party moved quickly. By Thursday lunchtime, Ms Truss announced she was out.
But the speed was also hastened not just by policy decisions but by politics. This was a prime minister who only ever had the public support of 42% of MPs, despite being nailed onto win for weeks.
It told us that Ms Truss was always going to have a problem winning over the parliamentary party, but instead of recognising her limitations and building a cabinet from different wings of the party, Ms Truss doubled down on winning power.
Image: Rishi Sunak leaves his house in London
She kept Sunak supporters out of office and rewarded her allies. It meant that she was not sufficiently challenged by the cabinet in decision-making and failed to garner any goodwill from the wider parliamentary party.
There is also a view from those former cabinet ministers who were agitating from the outset that Ms Truss was never really up to the job in the first place. When her policy platform sparked such dire consequences, the public concluded that too. So she had to go.
But three prime ministers in four months and endless infighting – all during a cost of living crisis – is the worst possible advertisement of a party that wants to convince the public it is fit to lead the country.
Labour want a general election, calling the Conservatives a “coalition of chaos.” The public, meanwhile, are thoroughly fed up, with Labour now consistently polling 20 to 30 percentage points ahead of the Tories.
That is why 1992 chair Sir Graham Brady and the Conservative Party want to replace the prime minister within a week. It is an attempt to get on with the business of government and try to prove to the public that the Tories are capable of governing.
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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer calls for a general election
But the mood in the party is desperate. Senior MPs tell me they think there’s little chance of winning the next general election, and the latest iteration of this Conservative psychodrama is designed not to win but to try to limit the losses.
So this will be a short, sharp contest with the aim of installing a new PM within the week. Nominations close on Monday at 2pm, and any candidate who wants to stand has to win 100 nominations. As things stand, it looks to me that the only two candidates that could reach the threshold are Rishi Sunak, who won 137 votes in the last contest, and Penny Mordaunt, who reached 105.
If only one of the candidates crosses the magic 100 threshold, we will know on Monday who will be the next prime minister. The party knows it’s on borrowed time with a fulminating public. This has to end, and soon. “We are deeply conscious – its imperative in the national interest – in resolving this clearly and quickly,” Sir Graham told me this afternoon.
Labour want a general election, the Conservatives will resist. But the question that is first and foremost in my mind, after the second bout of vicious bloodletting in the Conservative Party in just four months, is whether MPs can come together behind whoever takes over?
Some think the divisions and the grievances are just too deep. The Johnsonites will never accept Rishi Sunak; the Sunakites rounded on Ms Truss and might round on the next leader too, should their man not take the crown. We will have a new prime minister, but its hard to see how it stops the rot.
Watch a special programme tonight at 7pm with Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News
Israel is beginning a major expansion of its military operation in Gaza and will seize large areas of the territory, the country’s defence minister said.
Israel Katz said in a statement that there would be a large scale evacuation of the Palestinian population from fighting areas.
In a post on X, he wrote: “I call on the residents of Gaza to act now to remove Hamas and return all the hostages. This is the only way to end the war.”
He said the offensive was “expanding to crush and clean the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure and capture large areas that will be added to the security zones of the State of Israel”.
The expansion of Israel’s military operation in Gaza deepens its renewed offensive.
The deal had seen the release of dozens of hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, but collapsed before it could move to phase two, which would have involved the release of all hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
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26 March: Anti-Hamas chants heard at protest in Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had already issued evacuation warnings to Gazans living around the southern city of Rafah and towards the city of Khan Yunis, telling them to move to the al Mawasi area on the shore, which was previously designated a humanitarian zone.
Israeli forces have already set up a significant buffer zone within Gaza, having expanded an area around the edge of the territory that had existed before the war, as well as a large security area in the so-called Netzarim corridor through the middle of Gaza.
This latest conflict began when Hamas launched an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages.
The ensuing Israeli offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
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1:22
Bodies of aid workers found in Gaza
Aid group Doctors Without Borders warned on Wednesday that Israel’s month-long siege of Gaza means some critical medications are now short in supply and are running out, leaving Palestinians at risk of losing vital healthcare.
“The Israeli authorities’ have condemned the people of Gaza to unbearable suffering with their deadly siege,” said Myriam Laaroussi, the group’s emergency coordinator in Gaza.
“This deliberate infliction of harm on people is like a slow death; it must end immediately.”
“Liberation day” was due to be on 1 April. But Donald Trump decided to shift it by a day because he didn’t want anyone to think it was an April fool.
It is no joke for him and it is no joke for governments globally as they brace for his tariff announcements.
It is stunning how little we know about the plans to be announced in the Rose Garden of the White House later today.
It was telling that we didn’t see the President at all on Tuesday. He and all his advisers were huddled in the West Wing, away from the cameras, finalising the tariff plans.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is the so-called ‘measured voice’. A former hedge fund manager, he has argued for targeted not blanket tariffs.
Peter Navarro is Trump’s senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing. A long-time aide and confidante of the president, he is a true loyalist and a firm believer in the merits of tariffs.
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His economic views are well beyond mainstream economic thought – precisely why he appeals to Trump.
The third key character is Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary and the biggest proponent of the full-throttle liberation day tariff juggernaut.
The businessman, philanthropist, Trump fundraiser and billionaire (net worth ranging between $1bn and $2bn) has been among the closest to Trump over the past 73 days of this presidency – frequently in and out of the West Wing.
If anything goes wrong, observers here in Washington suspect Trump will make Lutnick the fall guy.
And what if it does all go wrong? What if Trump is actually the April fool?
“It’s going to work…” his press secretary said when asked if it could all be a disaster, driving up the cost of living for Americans and creating global economic chaos.
“The president has a brilliant team who have been studying these issues for decades and we are focussed on restoring the global age of America…” Karoline Leavitt said.
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2:52
‘Days of US being ripped off are over’
Dancing to the president’s tune
My sense is that we should see “liberation day” not as the moment it’s all over in terms of negotiations for countries globally as they try to carve out deals with the White House. Rather it should be seen as the start.
Trump, as always, wants to be seen as the one calling the shots, taking control, seizing the limelight. He wants the world to dance to his tune. Today is his moment.
But beyond today, alongside the inevitable tit-for-tat retaliation, expect to see efforts by nations to seek carve-outs and to throw bones to Trump; to identify areas where trade policies can be tweaked to placate the president.
Even small offerings which change little in a material sense could give Trump the chance to spin and present himself as the winning deal maker he craves to be.
One significant challenge for foreign governments and their diplomats in Washington has been engaging the president himself with proposals he might like.
Negotiations take place with a White House team who are themselves unsure where the president will ultimately land. It’s resulted in unsatisfactory speculative negotiations.
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6:03
Treasury minister: ‘We’ll do everything to secure a deal’
Too much faith placed in the ‘special relationship’?
The UK believes it’s in a better position than most other countries globally. It sits outside the EU giving it autonomy in its trade policy, its deficit with the US is small, and Trump loves Britain.
It’s true too that the UK government has managed to accelerate trade conversations with the White House on a tariff-free trade partnership. Trump’s threats have forced conversations that would normally sit in the long grass for months.
Yet, for now, the conversations have yielded nothing firm. That’s a worry for sure. Did Keir Starmer have too much faith in the ‘special relationship’?
Downing Street will have identified areas where they can tweak trade policy to placate Trump. Cars maybe? Currently US cars into the UK carry a 10% tariff. Digital services perhaps?
US food? Unlikely – there are non-tariff barriers on US food because the consensus seems to be that chlorinated chicken and the like isn’t something UK consumers want.
Easier access to UK financial services maybe? More visas for Americans?
For now though, everyone is waiting to see what Trump does before they either retaliate or relent and lower their own market barriers.
A man inside Mandalay has told Sky News bodies remain under “collapsed and inclining” buildings after the Myanmar earthquake – as a woman was freed from rubble after 91 hours.
The local inside Myanmarsaid many of the structures in the city were wrecked or badly damaged after the 7.7 magnitude quake on Friday, adding: “There are some bodies, some dead bodies, that still remain and other destruction”.
Meanwhile, in a televised address, Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing said the number of dead had risen to 2,719 and is expected to exceed 3,000.
Some 4,521 people have been injured, while a further 441 are missing.
More than 10,000 buildings are known to have collapsed or been severely damaged in central and northwest Myanmar, the World Health Organisation said.
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0:41
Before and after: Myanmar earthquake
Smell of dead bodies near destroyed buildings
In Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, which was close to the quake’s epicentre, 50 children and two teachers were killed when their preschool collapsed, the United Nations said.
The local in the city told Sky News that “a lot of local assistance associations like charity groups are still struggling with digging out the corpses, the dead bodies, from the destruction”.
He said that “when we pass near the destructions, the collapsed building or very damaged building, we can smell” dead bodies.
“The smell of the dead bodies after four days… it still remains,” he said, before adding: “For the social assistance association… they need permission [to give aid] especially from the government.
“If they don’t have permission, then they cannot do anything.”
Image: People sheltering in a makeshift tent camp in Mandalay. Pic: Reuters
He also said others in Mandalay are struggling after the earthquake, which followed the city being affected by cyclones, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the civil war in Myanmar – where a junta seized power in a coup in 2021.
“Some people, they say they have nothing at all,” the local added. “They have no more home, they have no more belongings, because its already damaged.”
Woman freed after 91 hours under rubble
It comes after the fire department in Myanmar’s capital freed a woman trapped under rubble 91 hours after the building collapsed.
The 63-year-old woman was freed early on Tuesday in Naypyidaw.
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As the country continues to recover, a worker from the International Rescue Committee said people fear aftershocks and are sleeping outside on roads or in open fields.
Communities are struggling to meet basic needs such as access to clean water and sanitation, and emergency teams are working “tirelessly” to locate survivors and provide aid, the UN said in a report.
Rescue efforts have been complicated by the civil war, as rebel groups say the junta has conducted airstrikes, even after the quake, while NGOs fear that certain areas could be denied vital supplies.
“Myanmar’s military has a longstanding practice of denying aid to areas where groups who resist it are active,” said Joe Freeman, a researcher with Amnesty Myanmar.
“It must immediately allow unimpeded access to all humanitarian organisations and remove administrative barriers delaying needs assessments.”