Tom Newton Dunn Rishi was the PM's heir apparent; now Truss is jostling for that role

WAIT, what? The Chancellor didn’t just contradict the Business Secretary’s claim that they’re in talks about a gas price bailout, he also accused him of serially “making things up” in TV interviews?

It was a marmalade dropper moment, as it’s known in the newspaper trade. Trust me, senior Cabinet ministers publicly accusing each other of lying doesn’t happen very often, so it’s worth dwelling on. I’ve asked about. There are two reasons for Rishi Sunak’s spectacular explosion on Kwasi Kwarteng via an aide on Sunday morning, according to those familiar with Team Rishi’s thinking at the moment.

The first is economic. Two weeks from today, the Chancellor, below, must deliver both a very difficult Budget and a Whitehall-wide spending review. He is currently besieged from all sides. Not least by new Cabinet ministers who are refusing to accept their predecessors’ settlements. They include Nadine Dorries and Liz Truss, I’m told.

Everyone wants money to repair their sectors after the ravages of the pandemic, and Boris wants even more of it for levelling up. But there is none.

The public finances are in a dire state, as the Institute for Fiscal Studies made clear yesterday. The deficit stands at £300 billion. The state has mushroomed in size to 42 per cent of national income, and taxes are at their highest sustained level since the Forties.