DOOMSDAY warnings of an economic downturn that would take 20 years to recover from convinced Liz Truss to ditch her closest pal Kwasi Kwarteng and blow up her Government.
We can reveal for the first time the true scale of the financial horror the short-lived Prime Minister and her disastrous mini Budget risked.
Panic-stricken Treasury chiefs told the PM the UK risked plunging to the status of a “Third World country” unable to sell its debt on global bond markets, with the City “reduced to rubble”.
Her dream of slashing taxes was cooked up with her Chancellor in secret – and many of her aides reacted in shock when they were told of its scale just hours before it was unleashed on the country last month.
But abandoning it meant a weeping Truss had to sack her closest pal of more than a decade, the man with whom she had slowly but determinedly risen the ranks and seized power.