A cabinet minister has repeatedly refused to say if Liz Truss will lead the Conservatives into the next election, as the prime minister was given just 12 hours to save her job.
In an interview on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme on Thursday morning transport secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan was asked five times to give Truss her backing.
“Do you believe for certain, definitely, she will be the one taking you into that election?” Trevelyan was asked.
But she would only say: “We all stand firmly with her to get on with delivering the business of government.”
Asked again and again, Trevelyan said Truss leading the party into the election was “what we will be working towards”.
Put to her that while she might hope that was the case it was not the same as believing it, she said: “I’m a politician. I’m all about delivery.”
It came as senior Tory MP Simon Hoare said Thursday and Friday were “crunch days” for the prime minister.
“If this was a career review, an employer sitting in front of a person looking at performance and outcomes, then the score sheet isn’t looking very good,” he told the BBC.
“Can the ship be turned around? Yes. But I think there’s about 12 hours to do it. I think today and tomorrow are crunch days.”
Crispin Blunt, the Tory MP for Reigate who on Sunday became the first to publicly demand Truss resign, also said Truss should quit “today”.
He added the prime minister’s position was now “wholly untenable” and she should be replaced with either Jeremy Hunt or Rishi Sunak.
A chaotic day on Wednesday saw the acrimonious resignation of the home secretary, mayhem in the Commons over a fracking vote, and confusion over whether the chief and deputy chief whip had quit.
Suella Braverman lashed out at Truss’s “tumultuous” premiership as she resigned and accused the government of “breaking key pledges”.
Her exit, coming just five days after Kwasi Kwarteng’s sacking as chancellor, means the PM has lost two people from the four great offices of state within her first six weeks in No 10.