Truss is biggest casualty in brutal Tory bloodbath

Ex-PM, Shapps and Mordaunt among big beasts ousted-but Hunt survives

- Jitendra Joshi

A GRIM-FACED Rishi Sunak acknowledged the electorate’s “sobering verdict” after a calamitous night for the Conservatives saw Liz Truss and a dozen Cabinet members among more than 200 Tory MPs swept out of Parliament.

Penny Mordaunt and Grant Shapps, two would-be contenders to succeed Mr Sunak, were among high-profile ministerial casualties of the bloodbath along with veterans of the Boris Johnson era such as Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.

With nearly every constituency declaring, the Tories had lost 250 seats to stand on just 121 MPs, their worst result in history.

Before flying back to a wet and overcast London to submit his resignation to the King this morning, the outgoing Prime Minister said: “The British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight, there is much to learn and reflect on, and I take responsibility for the loss.”

Speaking outside No 10 before heading to Buckingham Palace, Mr Sunak said, “I have heard your anger” and confirmed that he would step down as Conservative leader — “not immediately, but once the formal arrangements for selecting my successor are in place”.

He added: “I would like to say, first and foremost, I am sorry. I have given this job my all. But you have sent a clear signal, a signal that the government of the United Kingdom must change. And yours is the only judgment that matters.

“I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility for this loss.”

Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour blitzed the Tories across inner London and rebuilt its “Red Wall” in northern England, while the Liberal Democrats swept targets in south-west London and the Home Counties — although they just missed out on unseating Jeremy Hunt in Godalming and Ash by 891 votes.

The wealthy Chancellor, after ploughing hundreds of thousands of pounds to shore up his ultimately successful campaign, offered a philosophical perspective on the party’s drubbing.