Britain’s bookmakers are currently scrambling to determine the odds on our next prime minister after Liz Truss’s dramatic departure from Downing Street following what must surely be one of the most disastrous premiership’s in world history.
Ms Truss met with Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the powerful 1922 Committee of backbenchers on Thursday lunchtime, presumably to determine whether there was any hope of saving herself, before taking to the dreaded lectern outside No 10 just after 1.30pm to announce that she was stepping down after just 45 days in power.
Her resignation came after a night of chaos in which her home secretary Suella Braverman stepped down and a particularly chaotic Commons vote on fracking saw accusations of Tory MPs being physically manhandled into voting with the government amid confusion over whether or not a vote of confidence was taking place and whether or not chief whip Wendy Morton and her deputy Craig Whittaker had also quit their posts.
All of which followed hot on the heels of her being forced into a series of embarrassing economic U-turns when her “mini-Budget” spooked world financial markets and tanked the pound, the sacking of chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and his replacement with Jeremy Hunt, who moved swiftly to tear up what remained of her fiscal programme and her credibility.
Mr Hunt has already ruled himself out of the running to succeed Ms Truss, with a new leader due to be chosen within a week, while Commons leader Penny Mordaunt has urged Conservatives to “keep calm and carry on”.
Betfair Exchange has been quickest on the draw, offering odds of 11/10 on Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor defeated in this summer’s leadership contest to succeed Boris Johnson but whose dire warnings about Ms Truss’s “fairy tale” tax slashing agenda were more than borne out by subsequent events.
Ms Mordaunt is next favourite on 7/2, defence secretary Ben Wallace is 8/1, former PM’s Mr Johnson and Theresa May aree tipped at 13/1 and 16/1 respectively to make unlikely comebacks, followed by Michael Gove on 31/1, new-minted home secretary Grant Shapps on 35/1, the just-ousted Ms Braverman on 55/1, Tom Tugendhat on 75/1, Dominic Raab on 80/1, foreign secretary James Cleverly on 85/1, “Brexit hard man” Steve Baker on 90/120 and ex-health secretary Sajid Javid on 120/1.
Betfair spokesperson Sam Rosbottom said: “After Liz Truss resigned from No10 to become the shortest-serving prime minister, her former leadership election rival Rishi Sunak is the 11/10 favourite to take the top job.
“Penny Mordaunt, who also stood to replace Boris Johnson, is next in the market at 7/2 and Ben Wallace is next at 8/1.
“A sensational return for Johnson, who was replaced by Truss, is 13/1 and far from out of the question according to the odds.”
William Hill also puts Mr Sunak out in front in the race to succeed Ms Truss at 2/5, ahead of Ms Mordaunt at 3/1 and Mr Wallace at 7/1.
Spokesperson Lee Phelps said: “It seemed inevitable and it’s finally happened as Liz Truss has announced that she’s stepping down as prime minister after just 45 days in office.
“Rishi Sunak was the one many wanted to replace Boris Johnson in the first place and we make the former chancellor the 2/5 favourite to step into the breach as next Conservative Party leader, ahead of Penny Mordaunt and Ben Wallace.”
Offering percentage probabilities on who might be the next Conservative leader and PM, Smarkets placed Ms Mordaunt on 41.7 per cent in the immediate aftermath of Ms Truss’s announcement, followed by Mr Sunak on 38.5 per cent, Mr Wallace on 7.1 per cent, Mr Johnson on 6.7 per cent and Mr Baker on 4.2 per cent, although this is subject to frequent change.
Odds on The Daily Star’s livestream lettuce winning the nod were not available at the time of writing.
