UK chaos: Home secretary steps down in another blow to PM’s mandate

Braverman was left with no choice but to step down on Wednesday after she was found to have used a private email to send an official document to a colleague.

“I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign,” she wrote in her resignation letter.

She then started firing parting shots at the premier by saying she had “serious concerns” that Truss was breaking manifesto promises.

Braverman was referring to Truss’s reported escapegoating of her finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng.

The PM is alleged to have been behind Kwarteng’s resignation last month by forcing him to take the blame for the botched budget of September 23, which sent markets into freefall.

“Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see we’ve made them, and hoping things will magically come right is not serious politics,” Braverman added.

The two ministerial positions have now been filled with the premier’s opponents, who had backed rival Rishi Sunak for assuming the Conservative Party’s leadership instead of Truss.

Senior Conservative Grant Shapps is now filling in Braverman’s shoes, while Jeremy Hunt is now serving as the new chancellor of the exchequer.

Shapps did not spare the PM either by lauding Hunt for scrapping most of the PM’s tax-cutting plan. Hunt had done “a great job of settling the issues relating to that mini budget,” Shapps said.

Also on Wednesday, Labour leader Keir Starmer asked Truss why she should remain in power.

“I have been very clear that I am sorry, and I have made mistakes,” Truss told jeering opposition lawmakers in the parliament. “…I’m prepared to take the tough decisions,” she added.

The prime minister was met with laughter, boos, and jeers.