Hours after insisting he was 'not going anywhere', former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng realised he wouldn't be able to save his job. Photo / AP
It was all so different on Thursday lunchtime. Attending an IMF meeting in Washington DC, Kwasi Kwarteng told The Telegraph: "I'm not going anywhere."
But several hours later, at a drinks reception at the British embassy, his mind was still somewhere else.
As he brushed shoulders with top bankers, his flight to back to London was already booked. Those who spoke to him say he was polite and engaging. He found time to address the audience.
But little did they know he would be leaving on the last plane out of Dulles Airport that night.
By then, it was clear he was fighting for his job. But it was only when he got off the plane on Friday morning that he realised he wouldn't be able to save it.
Back in London, while Kwarteng's flight was still in the air, it was left to Greg Hands, the trade minister, to attempt to steady the ship as he appeared on the breakfast media round.
A supporter of Rishi Sunak during the leadership campaign, Hands was brought into the Government last week following the sacking of Conor Burns. Now he had to defend Truss's tax policies, which had been described by Sunak as "a fairytale".
Asked whether there would be any more U-turns on the mini-budget, he replied: "Let's wait and see" and insisted Kwarteng's position was "totally" safe. He said: "I know the Prime Minister has got total confidence in Kwasi Kwarteng."
Minutes after hinting a U-turn could be on the way, he said there were "absolutely no plans to change anything" in the mini-Budget, telling LBC Radio: "There's no change to plans on corporation tax."
There was utter confusion. Labour, unsurprisingly, were having a field day. Ed Miliband, the party's climate change spokesman, said: "This is a Government in meltdown and an economic policy in tatters, and frankly I think the Conservative Party should be hanging its head in shame at what it is putting the country through."
William Hague, a former Tory leader, agreed, saying: "We haven't ever seen anything like this before at the beginning of a new prime minister's term, a new set of ministers, and a fiscal event or mini-Budget that gets into trouble so very quickly in terms of financial confidence and stability."
The majority of Tory MPs wanted Kwarteng to remain in post for the sake of stability. Mel Stride, the Tory chairman of the Treasury select committee, argued that the chancellor needed to be "given space".
As Stride was speaking, Kwarteng was hours from arriving in the UK. The Treasury was maintaining the line that there was nothing to worry about.
When British Airways flight 292 landed at Heathrow at just before 11am, most in Westminster believed Kwarteng's swift return was simply to announce the U-turn on corporation tax.
Soon afterwards, Downing Street said Truss would be holding a press conference, and sources said she would confirm that corporation tax will rise to 25 per cent in the spring.
It was a complete humiliation for the Prime Minister, who made the corporation tax cut a centrepiece of her leadership campaign. That pledge was enacted only three weeks ago in Kwarteng's disastrous mini-Budget.
Even more humiliatingly, it meant she was being forced to follow the economic policies of Sunak, the man she had defeated.
As MPs awaited the press conference, some began to ask why Kwarteng was not also appearing. At 11.30am, the answer became apparent when it was reported that Truss would be sacking her long-term ally as part of a desperate bid to calm the markets.
At the time, his car was speeding from the airport to Downing Street, followed by news helicopters. He arrived at midday and, 40 minutes later, sources confirmed that the Prime Minister had wielded the knife. It left him as the shortest-serving chancellor since Iain McLeod, who died after 30 days in office in 1970.
Westminster is an unsympathetic place, and thoughts quickly turned to a successor. Could Sajid Javid, a Sunak supporter, return? Maybe Nadhim Zahawi, chancellor for two months over the summer, would be back? Steve Barclay was also mentioned.
But it soon emerged that Jeremy Hunt, the two-time Tory leadership candidate and former foreign secretary, had been approached to take over. It was a spectacular return for a man who backed Sunak against Truss in the contest.
MPs' thoughts also turned to the major question – how can the Prime Minister survive? She had sacked her chancellor even though she was in lockstep with him on policy. Cutting corporation tax was her idea. How could she stay in post while he could not?
With polls showing the Conservatives at 19 per cent, and just nine per cent saying Truss was doing a good job, there was talk of Penny Mordaunt and Sunak returning to take control of the party. Both, though, kept out of the limelight, with Sunak in his Yorkshire constituency.
Nevertheless, it was reported that a group of senior Tories had decided to publicly call next week for Truss to resign. Even those who supported her in the leadership election began to turn against her. She was elected on a tax-cutting agenda and, if she failed to do so, what was the point of her?
At 1pm, all was confirmed. Kwarteng released his resignation letter, in which he pledged to remain loyal from the back benches. "You have asked me to stand aside as your chancellor," he wrote. "I have accepted."
It was also revealed, via the Chopper's Politics newsletter, that Chris Philp – the man accused over the disastrous 45p tax policy – was being removed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Fifteen minutes later, Kwarteng left his Number 11 Downing Street residence for the last time, to shouts from waiting reporters of "should Liz Truss resign?"
All eyes then turned to the Prime Minister's press conference in Downing Street. It did not go well. Dressed in black, she delivered a short statement and took just four questions from journalists. The whole thing was over in eight minutes.
"It is clear that parts of our mini-Budget went further and faster than markets were expecting," she said. "As Prime Minister I will always act in the national interest."
She hoped her speech and her plans to put up corporation tax would reassure the markets. It did not quite work out like that, as Government borrowing costs jumped.
In a sign of Truss's weak position, Cabinet ministers began to insist they were loyal and that the Prime Minister should stay. Therese Coffey, the Deputy Prime Minister, was typical, wrote on Twitter: "The PM is right to act now to ensure our country's economic stability – key for families and businesses – and reassure the markets of our fiscal discipline."
In a desperate attempt to shore up support, Coffey held a zoom call that was open to all Tory MPs. Fewer than half turned up.
As the most difficult day of her political life came to an end, Truss knew her future was hanging by a thread. At least she knew Hands, who had so confidently predicted that Kwarteng would survive, was predicting that she would remain as Prime Minister.
Asked on Friday morning whether she would still be in Number 10 in a week, he replied: "Oh, definitely". Time will tell if his confidence is well placed.
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