New Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt is the "de-facto prime minister" — so says a backbench Tory MP.
"There's real power in Downing Street - but it's not in Number 10, it's in Number 11," Sir Roger Gale told Sky News presenter Kay Burley on Monday morning.
This comments came hours before Hunt's press conference to announce more tax and spending changes.
The veteran North Thanet MP said "all the shots" were now being called by the chancellor, who Truss appointed on Friday in a bid to survive a crisis of confidence in her month-old leadership.
Gale, who voted against Truss in this summer's Conservative Party leadership election, said he wanted Hunt to "get on with the job".
Former foreign secretary Hunt was catapulted from the backbenches to the second most-important office in the land on Friday after Truss sacked Kwasi Kwarteng after just five weeks in the job.
Kwarteng's mini-budget announcement of massive borrowing to fund a government aid scheme to get households and businesses through the energy price crisis, along with cuts to Corporation tax and National Insurance, prompted a run on the pound sterling and UK government bonds.
But those moves only honoured campaign pledges made by Truss.
Hunt, an opponent of Britain's exit from the European Union (EU), has made two unsuccessful bids for the Tory leadership — and the nation — in the last three years. Johnson beat off a rebellion by Remainers in his own party and won the 2019 snap general election under the slogan "Get Brexit Done".
He was runner-up to Boris Johnson in the 2019 contest, following Theresa May's resignation as PM over her push for a 'soft Brexit', but was knocked out in the first round of balloting in this summer's leadership race before backing former chancellor Rishi Sunak.