LIZ Truss may not lead her party into the next election, one of her cabinet ministers has appeared to concede, as a Tory MP said the Prime Minister now had just 12 hours to save her job.

Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan repeatedly refused to say this morning whether Ms Truss would still be in charge when the electorate was next asked to choose a government.

It would normally be automatic for a cabinet minister to say the PM would carry on in post, but Ms Trevelyan stressed Government delivery instead.

She said she “hoped” Ms Truss would still be PM, and that “at the moment” that was the plan, but refused to say categorically that it would happen.  

Asked why she was taking that line, she said curtly: “I’m a politician, I’m all about delivery.”

The comments added to the huge uncertainty around Ms Truss’s future in Downing Street after more extraordinary turmoil yesterday.

Suellla Braverman resigned as Home Secretary and criticised Ms Truss’s record and her many U-turns, while a Commons vote on fracking saw Tory MPs, some in tears, reportedly manhandled into the Government lobby.

There was also confusion over whether the vote was a confidence issue for the Government, with the Tory whips initially saying it was, then a minister at the despatch box saying it wasn’t, and in the small hours of the morning No10 saying it had been one after all.

Tory chief whip Wendy Morton and her deputy Craig Whittaker reportedly quit over the fiasco only to be persuaded back into the government.

Some of the Tory MPs who abstained on the vote may now face disciplinary action for breaking a three-line whip, potentially thinning out the numbers of rebels, but also adding to resentment against Ms Truss.

The Tory MP Simon Hoare this morning told BBC Radio 4 that Ms Truss had around 12 hours to "turn the ship around" and save her job.

He said the Government “wants to function” but was engaged in daily “hand-to-hand fighting”.

Asked if Ms Truss was “up to the job”, he said: “I think she could be.

"If this was a career review, an employer sitting in front of a person looking at performance and outcomes etc, then the score sheet isn’t looking very good.

“But I’m a glass-half-full sort of person. Can the ship be turned around? Yes.

"But I think there’s about 12 hours to do it. I think today and tomorrow are crunch days.”

Asked if she believed Ms Truss would “definitely” take the Tories into the general election due by January 2025, Ms Trevelyan told the same programme: “So, we will stand firmly with her to get on with delivering the business of government.”

When it was pointed out that was not an answer to the question asked, Ms Trevelyan stuck to her previous response.

“So, as I say, we want to stand with her to deliver the business of government and allow [Chancellor] Jeremy Hunt 10 days to bring together the budget, which will be balanced and will ensure that we can continue to deliver frontline services whilst meeting the challenges and the costs that we know we have to maintain with the inflationary global prices that we are seeing.

“So there are hard, hard decisions to come and there are hard delivery programmes to get on with, and that’s what we all want to do.”

Pressed on why she wasn’t simply saying Yes to Ms Truss still being in charge at the election, she was asked again if she definitely believed Ms Truss would still be PM by then.

Ms Trevelyan replied: “That’s what we will be working towards, and we hope that we will be able to do that whilst delivering, so that the British people understand exactly why it’s important to support the Conservative agenda.”

Asked why she had said she “hoped” Ms Truss would be PM rather than believing it, Ms Trevelyan said: “I’m a politician, I’m all about delivery.”

Asked why she was unable to say if Ms Truss would definitely lead the Tories into the general election, the Transport Secretary said: “So, as I say, we’re all about delivery.

“Liz’s plan is extremely clear. The Prime Minister has set out that the delivery of growth policies are absolutely critical in ensuring our economy can thrive, can get through this difficult winter, and that’s what we must focus on.

“Because if we don’t do that we can’t support both our public services and indeed those like the Ukraine that we want to continue to support whilst they battle to maintain their democratic right to be an independent nation. These are the sorts of things that a Prime Minister has to grapple with alongside supporting day-to-day life.

“Sometimes there is turbulence, we will stand with her to crack on and deliver those incredibly important policies that we know make a difference.”

There is speculation that the chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, has already received more than 54 letters calling for a confidence vote in the Prime Minister, the 15 per cent of the parliamentary party threshold for triggering one if Ms Truss was not in the 12 months’ grace period for new leaders.

But Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker told ITV’s Peston last night: “The Prime Minister cannot be removed; whether she goes or not is up to her.”