In politics, twenty-four hours can be a long time. Just ask Liz Truss.
On Sunday morning, she informed Laura Kuenssberg that her proposal to eliminate the higher tax rate was permanent.
Are you dedicated to it? Yes, she responded with assurance.
Even as late as last night, senior officials defended the proposal at conference fringe meetings.
However, something had altered.
As it became increasingly apparent that the strategy could not be sold, the prime minister and chancellor held a series of crisis meetings on Sunday.
The indicators were present. Conservative lawmakers took to the airwaves and social media to express their disapproval. They possessed a talisman in the form of former Michael Gove. What many individuals were saying in private was not being expressed in public.
The threat that they could lose the whip appeared to be counterproductive; it incensed skeptical lawmakers who doubted the prime minister’s authority to carry it out.
Grant Shapps, renowned in Westminster for his ability to anticipate the outcome of votes, cautioned that the administration might lose in the House of Commons. Labour was certain of the same privately.
And by the time Mr. Shapps stated that the administration had the wrong priorities, the proposal had already been discarded.
Late in the evening, a final decision was taken. Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng spoke at the Hyatt Hotel in Birmingham, immediately adjacent to the conference venue. They now agreed that the policy must be abandoned immediately.
Some senior cabinet ministers were informed this morning, just before the official announcement.
This is a major setback for an administration that has been in power for less than one month. It is a personal setback for a chancellor who has long taken pleasure in his steadfastness.
Allies of Mr. Kwarteng insist that he is calm and even relieved that the policy has failed.
This morning, someone remarked, “He knew this would be the defining factor”
However, Mr. Kwarteng’s hotel room is the only place where a sense of serenity exists.
Around the convention center, the Conservative Party is as agitated as it has ever been in the past few years.
According to one former minister: “No wonder the Labour party is laughing. It couldn’t be made up… it’s just ineptitude.”
Notable is the fact that many true believers are unsure whether she made the correct decision.
I questioned a cabinet minister who was close to the prime minister as to whether she had made the correct choice. They shrugged and then stated, “It was inevitable.”
Others are angrier.
One minister I spoke with said they were “not happy” in a nice manner.
“It destroys credibility,” they added, predicting that Tory backbenchers would now feel empowered to fight unpopular initiatives, a scary prospect for a new prime minister only weeks into the job.
A backbencher who opposed the 45p policy stated that abandoning it undermined the prime minister’s authority: “It looks weak.”
This morning, the language we couldn’t publish has been used multiple times.
Another member of parliament who supported Ms. Truss for the leadership was more optimistic but still skeptical: “I doubt that I would have made the U-turn. But she has accomplished this, and we must back her.”
However, the relationship between the prime minister and her chancellor is equally uncertain.
She told that he decided to eliminate the 45p rate. He stated this morning that the choice to make a U-turn was hers (he later said it was both of them).
When Ms. Truss and Mr. Kwarteng went into Downing Street, they were viewed as political best friends. The allies declared that they would be connected at the hip.
In the past several days, the willingness to impute a decision to the other has raised more than a few eyebrows.
According to those close to them, the notion of separation is exaggerated. A month later, though, few would have anticipated there to be any conversation at all.
What is the condition of the government this morning? Bruised and battered? Unquestionably humiliated? Probably. Incapable of recovery? A few Conservatives believe so, but time will tell.
The government hopes that by making this choice swiftly, the damage would be reduced and the government will be able to move forward.
In doing so, however, the prime minister admits that her will to defend unpopular policies has its limits.
There is a limit to their willingness to be unpopular.
