Sir Graham Brady has revealed Liz Truss new her grip on power was “pretty bad” shortly before she resigned as prime minister.
In an interview with the BBC, the chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 committee revealed details of the conversation he had with Truss on October 21.
The first indication that Truss might be about to quit came when Brady was spotted walking into No.10 at around 11.45am that morning for an unplanned meeting.
Sir Graham said Truss asked him: “It’s pretty bad isn’t it?” And he told her: “Yes, It’s is pretty bad.”
The soon to be former PM asked: “Do you think it’s retrievable?” He said: “No. I don’t think it is.”
Truss then announced her resignation in a speech outside No.10 at 1.30pm.
It was the third time that Sir Graham has had to tell a prime minister that they no longer had the confidence of Tory MPs.
He had to deliver the bad news to Theresa May in 2019 and then Boris Johnson earlier this year.
He said his conversation with Truss was “the easiest and most straightforward” because, unlike the others, she had already reached the same conclusion as him.
Sir Graham also recently oversaw the coronation of Rishi Sunak as prime minister after Penny Mordaunt failed to win enough support and Boris Johnson decided not to run.
In the interview he also confirnmed that Johnson had received the backing of the 100 MP needed to make it on to the ballot.
Brady said “two candidates” had reached the threshold, and “one of them decided not to then submit his nomination”.