Liz Truss arrived to the Commons late with her new chancellor Jeremy Hunt (Pictures: PA)
The prime minister did not show up for Sir Keir Starmer’s urgent question because she was in a meeting with Sir Graham Brady, it has been claimed.
Liz Truss was held up in a ‘private’ and ‘pre-planned’ talk with the chairman of the 1922 Committee this afternoon, No 10 sources have reportedly confirmed.
No details about what the meeting was about have been released, but many will assume the pair will have discussed the growing lack of support among her own MPs.
After Ms Truss did eventually enter the Commons with her new chancellor Jeremy Hunt, she appeared unresponsive to the fiery debate about her economic policies.
She was seen staring straight ahead as Mr Hunt broke down the changes he was making to Ms Truss’s mini-Budget.
Penny Mordaunt stood in for Ms Truss and told MPs: ‘With apologies to the Leader of the Opposition and the House, the PM is detained on urgent business… and I’m afraid you’ll have to make do with me.’
MPs could not help but laugh as they shouted ‘where is she?’ and ‘weak’.
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Penny Mordaunt took the PM’s place in the Commons today (Picture: PA)
The PM was seen leaving the Houses of Parliament this evening (Picture: Reuters)
Ms Mordaunt was met with a huge roar of laughter from the opposite benches after saying the MP was ‘not hiding under a desk’.
The PM acknowledged ‘mistakes have been made’ at a different meeting of the One Nation group of Tory MPs tonight, Conservative Party chairman Jake Berry said.
He told journalists Ms Truss and her MPs part of the political sect had ‘heavily focused on unity’.
He said: ‘The prime minister started by saying that mistakes have been made, she acknowledged them, she is bringing the party together.
‘Matt Hancock made a really good intervention, saying that now is the time for unity, we’ve got to get behind the PM.’
He said Ms Truss had been ‘exceptional’, and insisted he had not heard any irritation towards her in the meeting, but noted it was still going on.
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The PM was in a ‘private’ and ‘pre-planned’ talk with the chairman of the 1922 Committee, No 10 sources said.