DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Tories are now drinking in the last chance saloon

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Tories are now drinking in the last chance saloon

And so closes one of the most extraordinary, most turbulent and most dispiriting chapters in Tory political history.

After a premiership even shorter than the leadership race that put her there, Liz Truss has resigned.

Announcing on her 44th day in office her intention to step down, the Prime Minister now holds the dubious distinction of being the shortest-serving occupant of No 10.

Mercifully, the search for her replacement will take only a week, rather than two months. At a time when Britain faces a tidal wave of problems, the public would neither understand nor forgive the self-indulgence of an interminably drawn-out contest.

In Liz Truss’s resignation address outside No 10, there was little in the way of an apology

From tackling inflation and the cost of living crisis to fixing the crumbling NHS and thwarting Channel people-smuggling gangs, voters want a leader with a laser-like focus on the daunting challenges ahead – not a country held in political limbo.

For almost a decade, Miss Truss had a strong and demonstrable record in a string of Cabinet posts. Sadly though, in Downing Street she was hopelessly out of her depth.

Incompetence, unforced errors, self-delusion, untethered ambition and hubris… that lethal combination meant she’d barely got her feet under the desk before she was turfed back out of the famous black door.

The Mail had high hopes when she promised to be a standard-bearer for low-tax, small-state Conservatism and to turbo- charge growth – increasing wealth for all.

But voters blamed her botched mini-Budget – not global events – for bringing turmoil to the financial markets, which saw mortgage and government borrowing costs soar. The fallout saw Labour establish a gaping 30-point lead in the polls.

The final nails were hammered into Miss Truss’s political coffin on Wednesday evening, following weeks of U-turns, sackings, a breakdown of discipline and Tory MPs being manhandled in the voting lobbies.

In her resignation address outside No 10, there was little in the way of an apology for turning the party of Churchill and Thatcher into a laughing stock – and, worse, for making a Labour landslide at the next election a terrifyingly real prospect.

And her bleak legacy doesn’t end there. In a carefully orchestrated coup, the anti-Boris, anti-Truss faction – mostly Remainers – within the party have installed their men as Chancellor and Home Secretary.

As this paper has said many times, the party made a tragic error in toppling Boris Johnson. For all his flaws, he was unique in modern British politics – a man capable of reaching people who were not of his party through his optimism, energy and vision.

Birthday cake during lockdown and failing to get a grip on the Chris Pincher affair seem very small beer indeed in comparison with the economic chaos and political chicanery the country has been plunged into since his departure.

If he can be persuaded to stand in the leadership contest, it would send a shiver of fear down Sir Keir Starmer’s spine.

Other admirable candidates include Rishi Sunak, who as chancellor saved countless jobs and businesses with his Covid bailouts, and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who has shown his mettle standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Penny Mordaunt may also join the race, but there are concerns about the extent of her experience at the top of government compared to the other leading candidates.

The Conservative Party is in the last chance saloon. A general election is just over two years away – a brief window in which the Tories must persuade the voters that they are worthy of another term in office.

This leadership battle is a final chance for the party to pick a proven winner as leader, unite and stop tearing itself to shreds. Whether it is capable of doing that to survive is, of course, another matter.

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