They say a week is a long time in politics, and Liz Truss has had not one but two very long weeks indeed.

The problems started for Truss and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng with the announcement of a ‘mini budget’ which was in fact one of the most significant financial interventions in this country for some time.

What followed was chaos. The promise of a massive increase in borrowing to fund tax cuts for the richest 1% threw the markets into turmoil as the pound dropped to a record low on the dollar leading the Bank of England into an emergency intervention to buy government bonds in a bid to avoid the UK’s pension funds collapsing – a consequence that would have been an unthinkable disaster for the government and country.

Such a brazenly elitist financial announcement that was unapologetically designed to benefit the richest people in the country was always going to be a hard sell, never mind in the midst of the worst cost of living crisis for decades – something Truss found out the hard way on a calamitous and frankly embarrassing round of local radio appearances on Thursday morning.

These policies and their disastrous consequences have inevitably caused huge splits within the Tory party. Michael Gove was outspoken in his criticism of the decision to cut the 45p income tax rate, something that the government did finally make a U-turn on early this week.

This circus made by Truss and Kwarteng will no doubt have Conservative MP’s already plotting her downfall and lining themselves up with potential successors. But it is not the politicians in smoke filled rooms who will have to deal with he consequences of the mess created in this last week.

It is the ordinary man and woman already struggling with the cost of living crisis who will be the ones to pick up the pieces created in Downing Street. If benefits do not go up in line with inflation as this government has threatened and mortgage rates skyrocket as predicted all on top of the current cost of living crisis then struggling communities in Wansbeck and elsewhere in the country face a long harsh winter indeed. The potential consequences of this are truly frightening.

For her own sake and of the sake of millions of people in the country Truss must admit her mistakes and set out a proper plan to get us through the winter before it’s too late.