SIR Graham Brady is speaking to Liz Truss in Downing Street, it has been confirmed, amid growing doubts about her ability to cling on to power.
The Chair of the influential 1922 committee of Tory MPs was escorted into the back door of Number 10 shortly before midday.
Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey has also arrived at Downing Street via the back entrance.
Sometimes called the trade union leader for backbenchers, Sir Graham is the only person who knows how many letters of no confidence letters have been submitted in Ms Truss, and his advice to her could determine her fate.
No 10 sources claimed that Ms Truss had asked to speak to him, rather than the other way around. Meetings between the pair are also not unusual.
However his unscheduled arrival - echoing his visit to Boris Johnson in July, when he told the PM he had lost the confidence of the parliamentary Conservative party - has fuelled speculation that Ms Truss is also doomed.
The meeting even caaught the PM's spokesperson off guard as he was delivering a lobby briefing this morning.
It follows a chaotic day in the Commons yesterday, after Suella Braverman quit as Home Secretary with a blistering resignation letter attacking the PM's record, and a vote on fracking descended into shambolic scenes.
Thirteen Tory MPs have so far called publicly for Ms Truss to resign over the dysfunctional nature of her administration and mulitple policy U-turns.
The PM sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as her Chancellor last Friday and installed Jeremy Hunt at the Treasury in his place.
Mr Hunt then reversed almost all of the mini-budget that Mr Kwarteng delivered on September 23, pressing ahead with a rise in corporation tax, restricting the energy bill support scheme, and warning of "eye-watering" choices on spending cuts and tax rises to come on October 31.
A No 10 spokesman said: "The Prime Minister acknowledges yesterday was a difficult day and she recognises the public wanted to see the government focussing less on politics and more on delivering their priorities.
"That is also what the prime minister wants.
"You saw her take action yesterday and make a number of difficult decisions.
"She ensured the public can take confidence in the importance of the ministerial code, she provided reassurance to pensioners worried about the rising cost of living.
"And she took further steps on safeguarding energy security.
"She’s also working with the chancellor on delivering economic stability and growth."
The spokesman also refused to say if Ms Truss would stick to the Tory manifesto pledge to reduce net migration overall, understood to be a key disagreement with Ms Braverman ahead of her resignation.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The public wants us to control immigration and ensure we have a system that works in the UK is interests.
"That is our guiding principle but I’m not going to pre-empt further discussion.”
Pressed further, the official told reporters: “We do not want to see uncontrolled increases in low-skilled migrants coming into the country.
“What we are talking about is how we strike a balance to ensure that we have control over high-skilled migrants coming into the country to ensure our economy is supported and indeed can grow.
"Decisions on that have not been taken”.
He also denied reports that Liz Truss authorised briefings against former Cabinet ministers Sajid Javid and Michael Gove.
“You know the Prime Minister takes this very seriously. She thinks it’s very important to treat Parliamentary colleagues courteously.”
Ms Truss worked for years with Mr Javid and Mr Gove and has “deep respect” for them, the official added.
But he did not refute a Times report that she authorised one of her closest aides to accuse Mr Gove of being a “sadist”.
Under the rules of the 1922 Committee, a confidence vote is triggered in the Tory leader if 15 per cent of their MPs demand one.
A new leader is supposed to be immune from a vote for a year.
However the rules can be rewritten if the mood among MPs is for change.
If Sir Graham told Ms Truss she had lost the confidence of her party, she would be under irresistible pressure to stand down without a vote.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel