IT’S almost impossible to dispute Liz Truss’s parting line as prime minister that “brighter days lie ahead” as the UK drew a firm line under her disastrous and short-lived leadership.

Ms Truss delivered her final speech outside Downing Street and, like her predecessor Boris Johnson, made no acknowledgement of mistakes or contrition over where it all went wrong.

After just 49 days, Ms Truss has become the shortest-serving prime minister in the UK’s history – and that is what, if anything, she will be remembered for.

Her speech leant heavily on the trickle-down rhetoric she attempted to force on the UK economy – despite it being responsible for her demise.

The lack of an apology or any form of appreciation that she got things dramatically wrong has been the backbone of her administration and led to her excruciating downfall.

When her first chancellor and closest ally, Kwasi Kwarteng, caused economic havoc with a flurry of uncosted tax cuts and borrowing hikes, the financial markets reacted with disgust.

Ms Truss’s already-discredited financial philosophy had been roundly rejected by the City of London – placing the already-stuttering economy at risk of catastrophe. Instead of reacting to the markets, she ploughed on regardless.

The ill-fated premier also waited too long to pin the blame on Mr Kwarteng and that move left her in the firing line for the mess her government had created.

By sacking the chancellor, Ms Truss lost her grip on power, given the pair of them had brought forward the strategy in “lockstep” and had spent weeks defending it.

But the end of the Truss era was all but confirmed when her new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt ripped up almost all of her entire economic strategy – removing any remaining hint of authority that was still intact.

With pressure tightening on her flailing leadership, the optics of Ms Truss’s diminishing confidence, power and authority evaporated in the space of a painful afternoon in the House of Commons.

First, Ms Truss refused to appear in parliament to answer Labour leader Keir Starmer’s urgent question on the sacking of her chancellor – instead sending leadership rival Penny Mordaunt in her place.

Ms Mordaunt stood out in her confident performance and whether intentional or not, turned Ms Truss into a laughing stock.

Opposition benches erupted with laughter as Ms Mordaunt explained to MPs that Ms Truss was “detained on urgent business” instead of failing to turn up.

It got even worse for Ms Truss when her party rival moved to confirm that the then-prime minister was “not under a desk” – giving the entire country the mental image of the prime minister cowering under a table .

Ms Truss finally did arrive in parliament to sit alongside her new Chancellor – but sit in silence for 30 minutes was all she did.

The awkward and gormless appearance gave the impression that Mr Hunt was calling the shots and Ms Truss had been silenced. It signalled the inevitable conclusion of her premiership.

Until the bitter end, Ms Truss has never conceded that she got things wrong or that her judgement was poor.

That same attitude oozed from her farewell speech as she once again leapt to the defence of her botched economic mantra.

She boldly claimed that her government has “acted urgently and decisively on the side of hard-working families and businesses” – despite cutting short a pledge to support household energy bills for two years to just six months.

Ms Truss added: “From my time as prime minister, I’m more convinced than ever that we need to be bold and confront the challenges that we face.”

But she was warned about what would happen if she pursued her tax-slashing agenda – notably by the man she defeated in the first Tory leadership contest last month.

Rishi Sunak, who has snatched the keys to Downing Street from Ms Truss, starkly warned her during the leadership tussle that huge tax cuts while inflation soars would lead to trouble.

The new Prime Minister wasted no time in pointing out his predecessor’s failings – attempting to distance himself and his incoming government’s relationship with the economic mess and failed ‘Trussenomics’.

In his opening remarks in Downing Street, Mr Sunak adamantly told the public his ambition was to “fix” the “mistakes” made by Ms Truss.

He stressed Ms Truss was “not wrong to want to improve growth in this country”, adding that it was a “noble aim”.

But he starkly admitted that “some mistakes were made”.

Ms Truss will be remembered as a failed prime minister who refused to listen to the markets and change course when all signs pointed to disaster – before being roundly rejected by her colleagues.

Her centrepiece energy support package was watered down in the series of U-turns announced by Mr Hunt – while 49 days was not long enough to bring forward anything worthwhile.

Those close to Ms Truss have suggested she is likely to take a break from politics after the next election.

But it is difficult to see how the UK’s shortest- serving PM can recover any credibility and even build a legacy once politics is behind her.