Jeremy Hunt has said he believes Liz Truss will still be prime minister at Christmas – despite five Conservative MPs already publicly calling for her to leave Number 10.
In an interview with Sky News political editor Beth Rigby, the new chancellor called on Conservative MPs to “give her a chance”.
He also ruled out becoming prime minister himself, saying: “I rule it out, Mrs Hunt rules it out, three Hunt children rule it out.”
Mr Hunt has been described by some as effectively a “caretaker prime minister” after he was brought in to restore calm following the dramatic sacking of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday.
This morning he ripped up the bulk of the economic strategy that brought Liz Truss into office as prime minister just six weeks ago.
Asked “what is the point of Liz Truss?”, he replied: “She’s prime minister, she has got important decisions to make. People who want her to go need to ask themselves whether more political instability is going to help keep mortgage rates down, keep interest rates down, calm the markets.
“I don’t think political instability is the answer. She’s been prime minister for about five weeks and we need to give her a chance.”
Mr Hunt continued: “I would rather a leader who listens, learns and changes and I think we would have more instability, much more instability, if we were to have a leadership process.”
Earlier, Sir Charles Walker became the fifth Conservative MP to call for the prime minister to go.
He told Beth Rigby her position “is untenable” adding: “She has put colleagues, the country, through a huge amount of unnecessary pain and upset and worry.”
He said the situation “can only be remedied.. with a new prime minister”.
With her position on the line, Ms Truss met with the One Nation group of Tory MPs in Westminster tonight, where she apologised to those in attendance for the mistakes her government made.
The prime minister’s press secretary told reporters that Ms Truss said she was sorry for the market turmoil caused by the mini-budget and that she tried to do too much too quickly.
The press secretary said the PM outlined that there are no plans for any cabinet reshuffle and that Ms Truss said she wants to work with all the party and get different people’s opinions.
They also described the mood at the meeting as “determined”.