In office, Liz Truss promised to be the ‘disruptor in chief’. Unfortunately, most of that disruption has proved to be in the markets and the polls as her short-lived revolution tanked the standing of both her currency and her party. With Labour and mortgage rates on the rise, Truss’s authority has disappeared within days. She’s been forced to ditch her ideological soulmate Kwasi Kwarteng for Jeremy Hunt, the embodiment of Tory orthodoxy, and is now very much a prisoner of her party as they try to find someone – anyone – who can dig them out of their self-inflicted mess.

Most of these discussions are happening behind closed doors as MPs weigh up their various options: a coronation or a contest? Ben or Boris? A fresh face or old? But this afternoon one Tory MP has at last opted to break cover and call for Liz Truss’s resignation: Crispin Blunt, the onetime prisons minister last seen attempting to defend disgraced jailbird Imran Ahmad Khan. Blunt by name, and by nature, the Reigate MP chose the comforts of the Andrew Neil Show to declare that ‘The game is up’ for Truss, adding that if his colleagues agree ‘that we have to have a change, then it will be effected’ though ‘exactly how it’s done and exactly under what mechanism’ is not yet clear.

How many of Blunt’s colleagues will follow suit? Mr S will be keeping track on Coffee House so watch this space…

‘The game is up’ for Liz Truss

Former Minister @CrispinBlunt becomes the first Tory MP to break cover since Kwasi Kwarteng was sacked, telling @AFNeil the PM has got to go

Watch a special edition of #TheAndrewNeilShow: Can Liz Truss survive?
Tonight, @Channel4, 6.15pm pic.twitter.com/6wBUPX8M1x

— Channel 4 (@Channel4) October 16, 2022