The plan was as follows: after the formation of the new government, the first stunning announcements would come, which would then be celebrated – together with the new prime minister – four weeks later at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.

The reality is different: In order not to let the party conference turn into a disaster, the government had to withdraw its most controversial announcement, the reduction of the top tax rate, at short notice, which assigns Liz Truss the thankless role of the early failure at the party conference.

Jochen Buchsteiner

Political correspondent in London.

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At the center of the debacle is Truss' confidante and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng.

With his House of Commons speech on the "mini-budget", he had almost the entire political class, including many Tories, the economy and "the markets" against him.

In the ten days leading up to the party congress there had been no other domestic political issue.

With just one speech, his first, Kwarteng managed to send the national currency plummeting, trigger interest rate hikes and force the central bank to take expensive countermeasures.

Before the end of the one-month period, Kwarteng was confronted with demands for his resignation.

More May than Thatcher

Already on Sunday it became apparent that the unity of the conservative party and even the government was crumbling.

Influential Tories such as former Ministers Michael Gove and Grant Shapps have publicly advocated a reversal and signaled a vote against the plans in the House of Commons.

When Truss was then interviewed on the BBC, she defended the “growth course” she had taken, but declared the reduction in the top tax rate from 45 to 40 percent to be a decision by Kwarteng.

From then on, it was less than 24 hours before the Chancellor of the Exchequer repented.

People had "listened" to the people, he said on Monday morning, and will therefore correct an aspect that "distracted" from the otherwise promising policy change.

of a resignation,

at least one apology, Kwarteng would have nothing to do with;

he had only learned “humility” in the past few days.

The pound sterling's rebound on the heels and the interest rate forecasts that are so important to British homeowners being revised downwards within an hour illustrated the relief in the financial and economic world.

The relief among the delegates in Birmingham, on the other hand, seemed ambivalent.

Admitting a mistake is better than defending it, but the momentum was gone for a powerful congress to celebrate the ingenuity and audacity of the fourth consecutive Tory government.

Just four weeks after taking office, the country has a "leaderless" government, the Conservatives' newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, said on Monday.

Truss is no longer reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher, but of (the hapless and short-lived) Theresa May.

There is still some time before the Prime Minister's big closing speech on Wednesday to set other priorities.

However, the chances of that happening are not good.

New Trade Minister Kemi Badenoch, who did remarkably well in the party leadership elections and has risen to become a young hopeful, is due to make a speech, but her main project, a free trade agreement with the United States, has just been canceled by the US President.

Interior Secretary Suella Braverman will have her first major appearance this Tuesday, but she too is on the defensive.

On the one hand, she wants to reinforce the tough course against illegal migrants, which the party base will be happy to hear, on the other hand, her politics are overshadowed by an internal government debate.

Apparently, the cabinet is considering softening the criteria for legal immigration introduced under Boris Johnson in order to bring more jobs to the labor market.

In the manuscript for the Chancellor's speech at the party, the sentence was: "We must stay the course - I am sure that our plan is the right one."

The passage was deleted on Monday.

The Prime Minister's speech manuscript, which has been in preparation for weeks, is also likely to be rewritten.