They say a week is a long time in politics, but so much has happened this fortnight it has genuinely been staggering. It is just ten days since the Conservatives admitted to twelve years of stagnated growth under their own watch, and went on to deliver a “fiscal event” so reckless that Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies – not generally an organisation prone to hyperbole – immediately reacted to say “£45 billion of tax cuts. This is biggest tax cutting event since 1972. Barber’s dash for growth then ended in disaster. That Budget is now known as the worst of modern times.”

Well, I think it’s fair to say the market reaction arguably topped even that historic low: the pound briefly collapsed, British pensions were at unprecedented risk, and the mortgage market became extremely volatile. The Bank of England had to step into to print more digital money to steady the ship to avoid further economic disaster, but the implications for family and business finance remain very serious, at a time when the cost of living crisis was already forcing difficult choices household by household. I had called it Casino economics, and as it turns out, they rolled us straight into the red.

After days of sitting the whole situation out entirely, seemingly in hiding, the Prime Minister conducted a disastrous round of radio regional interviews made this calamitous situation even worse. Truss’s failure to answer questions about what will happen with people’s pensions and mortgages left families across the country facing huge worry. Then yesterday, after defending and excusing their self-inflicted mess to the hilt, Truss and Kwarteng finally u-turned on their proposed cuts to the highest rate of income tax (but then pre-recorded broadcast interviews of Truss promising no such reversal would be forthcoming were released). This shambolic approach has done little to reassure the country that this is a Government worthy of trust or confidence.

As I told Sky News, the fiscal event was the biggest self-made economic error the country has ever seen (I also told them that the liberalisation of fracking permissions included in the mini budget was categorically the wrong move).

The Prime Minister and her entire frontbench continue to prioritise saving face over saving people’s homes. It is my firm view that Parliament should have been recalled and this kamikaze budget must be reversed. I called on backbench Tory MPs to join our calls for this; their failure to do so made them complicit in this reckless gamble with the country’s economic security and every families’ finances. Furthermore, we need a General Election now. This is an unelected Government with a country looking clearly towards a fairer and more competent alternative.