SUELLA Braverman likes to be first.

In July, the then Attorney General was the first member of Boris Johnson’s cabinet to throw her hat in the ring for the Conservative leadership, a day before a vacancy.

Now, after 43 days as Home Secretary, she has become the first member of Liz Truss’s cabinet to resign, with an unmissable hint the PM should head for the exit as well.

It looks as if Ms Braverman thinks there is another leadership contest coming soon, and is positioning herself as the candidate of the right.

On Tuesday, she appeared to be auditioning for the hustings during the passage of the Public Order Bill, when she railed against protests by climate change activists such as Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil.

“It’s the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati, dare I say the anti-growth coalition, that we have to thank for the disruption that we are seeing on our roads today.”

Without any evident irony, she also accused the opposition of being a “coalition of chaos”.

Well, it takes an agent of chaos to know an agent of chaos, I guess.

Anyone doubting Ms Braverman’s impure motives for leaving Ms Truss’s side need only read her extraordinary resignation letter.

After some brisk formalities about an errant email, the former Home Sec pivoted into a full-on attack on the Prime Minister’s record.

“Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics,” she wrote.

“I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign.”

Whoever could she have in mind?

The day had started relatively well for Ms Truss. 

PMQs was tough, as Sir Keir Starmer landed some decent jokes at her expense.

But she cheered her benches with that “I am a fight and not a quitter” line, and garnered positive headlines about protecting the pensions triple lock, albeit by contradicting the Downing Street briefing on Tuesday that she didn’t feel bound by it.

But, in a familiar pattern, the chaos didn’t take long to return, as it emerged one of her top aides had been suspended pending an ethics probe and the PM hastily ditched a visit involving questions from the media. Then Ms Braverman struck.

The fracking vote last night was another undignified shambles.

The Prime Minister simply cannot get on the front foot.

It comes back to her judgment. 

She appointed Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor and jointly devised the cracked mini-budget that led to his sacking three weeks later.

She also appointed Ms Braverman to another of great office of state, in charge of some of the most sensitive areas of Government, and now she too has blown up in her face.

And, the greatest sin in the eyes of her fretful supporters, she has been forced to turn to Jeremy Hunt and Grant Shapps for life support. 

Team Sunak, ever helpful, ever nearby, is taking over the reins.

One Tory MP yesterday revealed he had sent a letter of no confidence to the chair of the 1922 committee. 

More will surely follow suit. Ms Truss’s best shield is the lack of unity candidate and fear of a general election, but events are running so fast that that may not protect her for long. 

All politicians love to talk about having momentum, the Big Mo. 

Ms Truss may soon learn that momentum can flatten you too.