Chris Mason: Liz Truss tries to cling on as MPs work out next step

By Chris Mason

Political editor, BBC News

There was a tense mood in the building.

Liz Truss knows. Her team knows. Even the dogs in the street know. She is in serious peril.

But she appeared stoical and philosophical about things – and had time to chat about the artwork on the walls in Number 10 as we prepared to record our interview.

She is trying to make the best of a desperate situation for her.

Getting out there and making the argument that she should be given more time.

Why? Well there aren’t many others making that argument, so if anyone is going to, it’s going to have to be her.

It is worth remembering when we reflect on what is happening in politics right now just how extraordinary it is.

Yes, the extraordinary has become ordinary in recent years: a coalition, Brexit, political instability, frequent general elections, a pandemic, war in Europe.

I have reported from Westminster, on and off, for nearly 20 years.

I know, I know, I should get out more.

But I’ve never known a period like this.

Like the rest of us, political leaders change their minds.

But this was not just a wave of U-turns in scale and speed never seen before in contemporary politics.

It was more than that: it amounts to the wholesale collapse of the near entire programme for government of a prime minister who has been in office for six weeks.

So there was an obvious place to start.

“Prime Minister, who is to blame for this mess?” I asked.

“Well, first of all, I do want to accept responsibility and say sorry, for the mistakes that have been made,” she acknowledged.

But on specifics, extracting an apology proved much tougher.

On the economy, she stands accused of directly contributing to higher mortgage bills for millions of people.

What does she say to those families, right now, I asked.

“I understand it is very difficult for families across the country,” she told me.

It took me three attempts for her to acknowledge she was “sorry.”

She had gone “too far and too fast” with her plans, she acknowledged.

So was her rival for the leadership, the former chancellor Rishi Sunak, right all along?

“We had a very robust leadership campaign this summer where we debated ideas, we debated philosophy…” she said, not answering my question.

“He suggested your ideas would be a disaster, and he’s been proven right, hasn’t he?” I suggested.

She told me she was “committed to a low-tax high-growth economy,” (taxes are going up, growth is sluggish) but she said “my responsibility as prime minister is making sure that we have economic stability” – which the UK hasn’t had since she became prime minister.

Will she lead the Conservatives into the next general election?

“I will lead the Conservatives into the next general election,” she said.

“Well look, yeah,” she said, laughing nervously. “I’m not focused on internal debates within the Conservative Party leader.”

But she has to be, to stay in office.

Only hours before, after all, she had had Sir Graham Brady in to her see her, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers who’ll have been able to tell her direct whether her own colleagues want her to stick around.

“The important thing is that I’ve been elected to this position to deliver for the country. We are facing very tough times. We simply cannot afford to spend our time talking about the Conservative Party, rather than what we need to deliver. That is my message to my colleagues,” she concluded.

It is a plea to be given more time.

At a time when many of them are not inclined to do so.

Her nervous laugh about her long-term future nods to the stark reality that is obvious in Westminster.

There are very, very few Conservative MPs right now who think it’d be a remotely good idea for her to lead them into an election.

But for now they are collectively trying to work out what to do next.

Plenty tell me if the opinion polls remain dire for them, and they look better with an alternative to Liz Truss, she will be ditched.

But the challenge they face is finding a successor in as clean and quick way as possible.

And it almost certainly won’t be clean. And it probably won’t be that quick.

And so in the meantime, Liz Truss tries to cling on.