UK's PM Truss rocked as interior minister departs

Labour leader Keir Starmer mocked Truss at Prime Minister's Questions

Suella Braverman lasted just 43 days as home secretary under Liz Truss

British Prime Minister Liz Truss lurched deeper into chaos Wednesday as her hardline interior minister quit, forcing the new leader to turn to one of her strongest critics to shore up her tottering government.

Suella Braverman left as home secretary ostensibly after using her personal email to send an official document to a colleague -- but parted ways with a blistering attack on Truss.

Shapps had supported her party leadership rival Rishi Sunak.

Shapps acknowledged that Truss's government has had "a very difficult period", but that new finance minister Jeremy Hunt had done "a great job of settling the issues relating to that mini budget".

He is seen as one of the party's most effective communicators, but courted controversy early in his political career after revelations that he had used pseudonyms in his prior business life.

Her chief whip and deputy chief whip -- charged with enforcing party discipline -- were both reported to have quit in protest at an abrupt change in government tactics over the vote, which Truss eventually won.

Long-serving Tory MP Charles Walker lashed out at colleagues who, in his view, had supported Truss in return for personal advancement.

- 'Not serious politics' -

"Broken," the right-wing Sun headlined, over a picture of Truss looking forlorn. The Guardian said: "Braverman's bombshell puts Truss on the brink."

"I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign," she wrote in her resignation letter, while adding she had "serious concerns" that Truss was breaking manifesto promises.

"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 wrote.

Opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer asked the House of Commons: "What's the point of a prime minister whose promises don't even last a week?"

"Why is she still here?" he concluded.

Truss responded: "I am a fighter and not a quitter."

The session took place less than 48 hours after new chancellor of the exchequer Hunt dismembered Truss's tax plans in a bid to restore market confidence. 

A separate survey of Conservative members found that less than two months after electing her as party leader and prime minister, a majority now think she should go.

In more bad news for the government, inflation jumped back above 10 percent on Wednesday owing to soaring food prices.

But Truss said in parliament that she would maintain the costly pensions commitment.

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