Comment: Tory MPs at their wits' end as party implodes
For large numbers of Conservative MPs turning up at Parliament this morning, it was not a question of ‘if’ Liz Truss will go but ‘when’.
“Most of us are at our wits' end,” one of them told me dolefully, adding that for the PM to survive the next few weeks it would take a minor miracle.
Letters demanding a no confidence vote are turning up at 1922 chairman Sir Graham Brady’s office faster than he can open them, with the number said to be far greater than what either Boris Johnson or Theresa May faced when their premierships were on the rocks.
New Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s bonfire of the PM’s economic plan may have calmed the markets, but it has done little to steady the nerves of Tory MPs.
At the start of Ms Truss’s tenure some were invited to a briefing at Number 10, where it was made clear to them that things would be different from the previous regime.
They would not be marched to the top of the hill and abandoned, was one of the things they were told, a direct reference to the occasions under Boris Johnson when MPs were whipped into backing Government policy only to see it scrapped a short time later.
That all now sounds hollow, with MPs left looking foolish for publicly supporting an economic plan many of them had doubts about privately.
The harsh reality is that in a few short weeks the Tories have managed to become a party of higher taxes and spending cuts, which was absolutely not what anyone of a blue persuasion had in mind when Ms Truss got the job.
It is little wonder that Edward Leigh MP, who must have thought he had seen it all in nearly 40 years in the Commons, saw fit to ask: “What is the point of the Conservative Party?”
So as things stand, MPs willing to put their necks on the line to defend a failing Prime Minister are few and far between.
Her biggest supporters on the backbenches have fallen publicly silent, with one MP telling me they will be watching today's PMQs through their fingers.
Even among her Cabinet the mood is downbeat, particularly after yesterday’s meeting when Mr Hunt told them to prepare to see their budgets slashed.
Some are said to be preparing to resign rather than wait for the ship to go down.
For some MPs across the West Midlands, the rise of Mr Hunt is another nail in the coffin.
He has gone from leadership campaign make-weight to being arguably the most powerful politician in the land.
And although he has performed reasonably well under intense pressure this week, the staunch Remainer is hardly what people in places such as the Black Country had in mind when they helped get Boris Johnson into Number 10 back in 2019.
Yet in Westminster his name is being mentioned as a potential successor to Ms Truss.
Penny Mordaunt, another loser in the leadership race and current Leader of the House, has her share of supporters.
There are those who long for Mr Johnson's return, although it is questionable whether a significant number of the MPs who turned against him earlier this year would be willing to welcome him back.
He is also said to be less than keen to take on a leadership role with the party in such a desperate state.
In a sign of how ridiculous the situation has become, last night rumours swirled that he could be installed as party chairman under the leadership of none other than Rishi Sunak.
Mr Johnson forming an unholy alliance with the guy who played a leading role in getting him out of office?
Even a few weeks ago such a suggestion would have been preposterous, but this is now the political world we live in.
