The question Liz Truss needs to answer

Liz Truss will face the music this lunchtime when she speaks in the Chamber for the first time since she sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor, hired Jeremy Hunt as his successor –then watched as he junked almost the entirety of the not-so-mini-Budget. When Labour summoned Truss for an Urgent Question on the issue on Monday, the Prime Minister sent her one-time leadership rival Penny Mordaunt in her place. Then Truss turned up just as the session was finishing and sat in for Hunt’s Commons statement. Mordaunt was praised for stepping in – while Truss was criticised for her silence.

It only added to unhappiness on the Tory benches about Truss’s handling of the situation. There has been much animated talk among MPs that the Prime Minister could have just days left in No. 10. Tories are spending their days discussing potential successors – though there is little consensus. Only yesterday did the mood appear to calm slightly.

Truss has met privately this week with MPs from both the One Nation wing of the party and the European Research Group. Neither meeting was a disaster, according to MPs present – which for Truss these days is a win in itself. She apologised to the One Nation group and, while she didn’t get a roaring reception, the question and answer session that followed was viewed as constructive. Matt Hancock once again suggested a reshuffle. Last night at the ERG, she walked in to applause while MPs on this wing of the party were boosted by the fact David Canzini – the former No. 10 aide – is back in the fold.

But the fundamentals remain – it’s hard to find a Tory MP who thinks it’s a good idea Truss leads them into the next election. Plenty want her to go sooner. Truss needs to buy herself some time, with this afternoon’s PMQs viewed as an important moment in this endeavour. Can Truss reassure her party that – despite her dire poll ratings – she can lead them out of this crisis? Or will the performance only cement fears that Truss is unsuited to the task at hand and must go sooner rather than later? Truss needs to explain why she has junked nearly all the campaign pledges she defended just last week. She will also have to defend her comment last week that there would be no cuts to public spending – given they are now clearly on the cards. She ran on a promise of low tax and delivery. The ultimate question she needs to answer is, if tax cuts are shelved and the chaos continues, what is the point of her government?