At the start of the week, Liz Truss set out to quell dissent within Tory ranks as ministers returned to Westminster from party conference season amid reports of plots to oust her.
After a series of bruising meetings with Conservative MPs in the days that followed, criticism of her leadership had only intensified by Friday afternoon. The prime minister responded by sacking her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, and announcing a U-turn on their plan to halt a rise in corporation tax from 19% to 25%.
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has been appointed as the new occupant of No. 11. During a Downing Street press conference this afternoon, the PM told reporters that she had taken action to “make sure we have economic stability” during a “a very difficult time globally”.
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BBC Newsnight’s political editor Nicholas Watt reported that a group of senior Tories plan to “call publicly” on Truss to resign next week following Kwarteng’s sacking.
In the opposition camp, Keir Starmer put his party on “election footing” by restructuring Labour’s top team. Starmer told Labour staff that the “government’s collapse has given us a huge chance”.
To find out how closely you’ve been paying attention to the latest developments in the news and other global events, put your knowledge to the test with our Quiz of The Week.
Need a reminder of some of the other headlines over the past seven days?
- Buckingham Palace is reportedly reconsidering whether Queen Consort Camilla should wear the controversial Koh-i-Noor diamond when she is crowned alongside King Charles III next year
- Newly declassified records revealed that Cold War double-agent Kim Philby could have been unmasked more than a decade before he fled to the Soviet Union
- Members of the Swedish and Dutch royal families came together in a glamorous state visit
- Scientists believe that microbes on ancient Mars may have triggered life-destroying climate change.
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