Liz Truss has resigned as UK prime minister after just 45 days in office. Video / AP
In the end, there was relief. Liz Truss had endured the cruellest of political weeks. The anguish of sacking a loyal ally. The humiliation of scrapping an entire economic agenda. The brutality of open rebellion.So when the realisation set in that it was all over, the Prime Minister did not rage and scream, according to those who talked to her, or show deep emotion. There was acceptance.
”She feels quite relieved,” said a loyal source in touch with her yesterday (Thursday). “She felt really since the mini-Budget unravelled that it was just going to be very tough to keep going.”She is in a good mood. She’s actually quite fine about it. The party is pretty close to ungovernable.”
Downing Street insiders have opened up to The Daily Telegraph about the moments when Ms Truss, a “fighter not a quitter” by instinct, as she told MPs, agreed to call time.
For some of her closest aides, the realisation had come, privately, on Wednesday night, even as she battled to keep together a disintegrating Cabinet.
The Prime Minister had lost one colleague, Suella Braverman. The Home Secretary’s resignation missive was as close to two fingers as a formal farewell letter can be.
She had then lost another: Wendy Morton, the Chief Whip. Ms Truss was seen by MPs walking after Ms Morton saying “no, no, no” as her head of party discipline rushed out of the voting lobbies, apparently quitting.
The Chief Whip had marched out after the chaos of a Government attempt to vote down Labour’s proposed debate on fracking, with claims of “manhandling” and expletives.
Morton and her deputy Craig Whittaker eventually agreed to stay on in their roles, something confirmed to journalists at 1.30 am on Wednesday night. But the damage had been done.
There was no hint at what was to come in the upbeat daily brief issued by Conservative Party headquarters yesterday morning to MPs and government advisers.
In the two-page document, leaked to The Telegraph, Tories were urged to praise the party’s crackdown on strikes and tweet a graphic about the pensions triple lock being protected.
”Now is the time to unite and deliver stability”, the Government figures were urged to declare - a line that even the cheery Tory optimist will have known was an impossible ambition.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the Transport Secretary, tried to stick to the loyal message during her morning broadcast round, but with little success.
At one point she declined five times in a row to give a full-throated endorsement of Truss leading the Tories into the next election.
Liz Truss was repeatedly warned that her policies were not just causing economic pain - but also massive political damage. Photo / AP
Speaking to BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, all she could summon up to say was: “We all stand firmly with her to get on with delivering the business of government.”
As MPs arrived at Parliament, there was an eerie calm; a stark contrast to the anger and shouting of the night before.
A few more Tory MPs came out in public to say they believed Truss should quit - but there was little to suggest that the dam might break that day.
But by then, the Prime Minister had already concluded the game was up, according to multiple insiders, with her mindset before seeing Sir Graham Brady, the 1922 Committee chairman.
Sir Graham had never been meant to see Truss yesterday but, according to Downing Street, he was called in by Truss not the other way around.
The media was first alerted that trouble was brewing at 11.44 am when Sir Graham was seen entering No 10.
Soon there were more visitors to Downing Street. Thérèse Coffey, Truss’s deputy, was seen entering No 10 at 12.25pm.
Sir Jake Berry, the chairman of the Conservative Party, also came to see the Prime Minister at 12.49 pm. It was clear something big was happening.
The moment the departure became confirmed for Truss’s most trusted officials and aides was 1 pm, when around 30 of them were ushered into the Cabinet room.
There they stood, as Truss buried her political career.
”She said it was clear to her that she couldn’t continue and that she was going to go,” said one person present. “She thanked everyone.”The speech lasted just a few minutes - straight to the point, as Truss often is in private. If the Prime Minister held it together, others there struggled. “I was emotional,” said one.
And then it was out of the black door of No 10 to tell the nation, accompanied by her husband Hugh O’Leary. Her lectern had been brought out onto the wet street just minutes before.
Dressed in blue, she delivered a vintage Truss performance - slightly robotic in delivery and spent no time defending herself against the accusations of her critics.
First, she got in her excuses - an attempt to explain why she had embarked on the mini-Budget which wrecked her premiership.
”I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability,” she told the waiting press. “Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills.”
Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine threatens the security of our whole continent. And our country has been held back for too long by low economic growth.”
Next, she went on to lay out how she tried to address these problems. It was, in effect, a list of what she sees as the achievements of her six weeks in power.
”I was elected by the Conservative Party with a mandate to change this,” she intoned. “We delivered on energy bills and on cutting National Insurance.”And we set out a vision for a low-tax, high-growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit.”
Then she moved on to her resignation, without making any reference to the market turmoil that forced her to undertake a string of about-turns.
”I recognise, though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” she said. “I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.”
This morning, I met the chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady. We’ve agreed that there will be a leadership election, to be completed within the next week.”
This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security. I will remain as Prime Minister until a successor has been chosen. Thank you.”
And that was it. With no apology. As her speech drew to a close, a strange smile grew across her lips. Not for her was the loss of control that saw both Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May dissolve into tears as they announced their goodbyes.
The smile, perhaps, illustrated the relief she felt that her ordeal was over. Her speech had lasted just 89 seconds - undoubtedly one of the shortest resignation speeches in history.
Truss had been desperate to keep her job: less than a week ago she had even sacked her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, her closest political ally, in a doomed attempt to save herself.
She appointed Jeremy Hunt to succeed him and performed even more about-turns. Even when she had to replace her home secretary, Suella Braverman, she believed she could continue.
But it was Wednesday night’s chaos in Parliament that proved even to her that she could not go on.
Not long after Truss spoke, the heavens opened over Westminster. Come 6 pm it was time to drink at the nearby Colonies pub. After 44 days, Truss was in the political wilderness.
