An emergency budget will give her chance to get back on the front foot – but first she must gauge the nation’s mood in the period of mourning for the Queen
As Liz Truss processed out of Westminster Hall behind King Charles, over the brass plaques marking the trials of Guy Fawkes and Charles I and the spot where the Queen Mother lay in state, she looked like she was personally bearing the weight of history on her shoulders.
Her face grave and drawn, the new prime minister may have been reflecting on the new King’s words when he addressed MPs and peers assembled in the 900-year-old building: “Parliament is the living and breathing instrument of our democracy.”
