With Truss taking over as prime minister it is perhaps worth reminding ourselves of the potential weakness she has with the parliamentary Conservative Party. On the first leadership ballot in July she came away with a meagre 50 votes out of a total 358. That hardly suggests massive backing from her MPs

Even when other contenders were dropped she stiil trailed Sunak by some margin in the final MP ballot.

This contrasts very sharply with her support amongst party members which has been recorded month after month when she has almost always topped the ConservativeHome leader satisfasction surveys.

This matters because it is quite easy to see significant parts of the parliamentary party not being ready to back all her plans in a manner that will undermine her authority.

In many ways she is in a similar position to Jeremy Corbyn when he became leader of the Labour Party in 2015 – the difference being that he was in opposition while Truss will be heading the government

Mike Smithson