As the clock reached closer to midnight, Kwasi Kwarteng finished deliberating about heading home from Washington DC to attempt to save his political career. He eventually boarded the final flight back to London, but when he reached Downing Street 12 hours later, he was sacked as chancellor on the spot. The “knives of the long night” episode, as it is now called, took place with brutal swiftness. It was the culmination of a chaotic week in Westminster, which saw furious calls for an overhaul of Truss and Kwarteng’s mini-budget while her premiership teetered on the brink. The mood of Tory MPs was already toxic, given their party conference in Birmingham had been plagued by a series of U-turns and blue-on-blue attacks. But to test the feeling of the public, Kwarteng did a walkabout through his leafy constituency of Spelthorne, in Surrey, last Friday.
While passing an estate agent, he waved through the window and stopped when a woman inside got up, seemingly to greet him. Instead, she is said to have come to the window, made an obscene gesture and told the chancellor he was a disgrace. In Downing Street, Truss and her team were drawing up a fightback plan, sending out cabinet ministers to write opinion pieces in friendly newspapers calling for party unity and urging colleagues to focus their attacks on Labour. It was decided she would hear out colleagues’ concerns at the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, seeking to show them she was in “listening mode”, and begin inviting groups of MPs into No 10 for roundtable discussions. Both were hallmarks of the end of Boris Johnson’s administration, but helped stave off his defenestration for some months.
Nerves were eased slightly when Truss intervened to block Kwarteng’s pick to take over from the experienced Tom Scholar as permanent secretary of the Treasury. Instead of Antonia Romeo, who had never before worked in the department, a civil servant who had spent two decades there, James Bowler, was installed instead. The row deepened tensions still between No 10 and No 11. “They’re trying to remake the British economy and the two of them can’t even agree on staff,” sighed one Treasury official. However, Truss’s continued refusal, both in public at prime minister’s questions and in private behind closed doors, to demonstrate remorse and a willingness to water down her economic policies left many reeling. “She thinks it’s an advantage to have two years to turn things around before the next election,” said one backbencher. “But the thing about two years is that it’s just about plausible for a new leader to be in post for two years before an election, which makes a quicker removal more likely.”
At a dinner of veteran Tory MPs on Tuesday, several discussed whether they might be better off standing down early – even if it meant the party facing several difficult byelections – rather than staying put and ending up out of a job. “After the 1997 election nobody wanted to employ a former Tory MP,” one present said. “It will be the same this time round, so people are thinking about getting out early while they still have some currency.” Despite her best efforts, the political project Truss had spent the summer constructing ended up falling apart in 24 hours. Whitehall sources said Kwarteng had been pushing for a total retreat on the promise to scrap a corporation tax rise from 19% to 25%, while Truss dug in and wanted to go for something smaller. However, she eventually acquiesced and decided someone else should “carry the can”. Watched by thousands on flight-tracking websites and beamed across TV stations, British Airways flight 292 slid through the grey clouds above Heathrow and brought Kwarteng home to a political storm. Almost simultaneously, Truss’s team announced they were calling an emergency press conference. As the news rippled through MPs’ WhatsApp chats, one in a marginal red wall seat gritted their teeth and prayed “the podium stays inside the building”. Meanwhile, helicopters whirred over Whitehall. “It feels like we’re besieged,” a source in the Treasury bunker admitted. MPs watched agog – almost disbelieving – as they saw Truss take a handful of questions before exiting the stage after seven minutes to the cry of “Aren’t you going to say sorry?”
Previously loyal supporters said the game was up. “She is removing every reason why I voted for her,” said one. Another said colleagues were “giving up on her”. “There are weekend gatherings and she will be told to go on Monday,” they sighed. With Truss’s departure looking increasingly likely, mutterings between senior Tories turned to who should replace her and the nature of the contest. “The campaign last time showed people can say absolutely anything to get elected with no scrutiny whatsoever. It cannot be allowed to happen again,” a former minister said. To avoid a members’ vote, MPs have held talks about agreeing to all back a single person – as happened in 2003 when Michael Howard replaced Iain Duncan Smith. A joint ticket of Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt has been touted, but it is unlikely that the whole parliamentary party would be happy to coalesce around them. An alternative idea that gained some traction over the week was making candidates agree in advance that when they are whittled down to two, the person with the fewest votes will drop out – leaving a winner without the need for a runoff decided by members. “It might not win the next election but it might save 50 colleagues their seats and that’s what people are thinking,” said one MP.
Nadine Dorries rallied to support Truss, telling critics in the Conservative backbench WhatsApp group: “If you seriously think we can impose another leader without [a general election], that the media and the people would allow that, you need a lie-down.” Truss will try to cling on until 31 October, when her new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is tipped to unveil the revamped medium-term fiscal plan. But whatever backtracking or apologies are forthcoming, they are unlikely to prove enough. “It’s like somebody has vomited all over an expensive rug,” reflected one former minister. “You can wipe up the sick, scrub it with Vanish, but the odour still lingers.”