A TORY MP has told the Commons he has lodged a letter of no confidence in Liz Truss, underlining the Prime Minister's fragile grip on Number 10. 

After Tory whips warned a Labour-led vote on fracking tonight would be treated as a vote of confidence in the Government itself, William Wragg revealed he wanted to vote with Labour.

However he said he wouldn’t do so in case he lost the Tory whip and his letter to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, no longer counted.

The Hazel Grove MP said: “If I vote as I would wish, then I would lose the whip. I would no longer be vice chair of the 1922 committee.

“I would no longer maintain a position as a chair of one of the select committees of the House.

"And indeed, because of that, my letter lodged with my honourable friend, the member for Altrincham and Sale West [Brady], would fall, and I wish to maintain that letter with my honourable friend.”

He also said he was "personally ashamed" of the turmoil caused "directly" by the mini-budget, adding: "The lack of foresight by senior members of the government, I cannot easily forgive."

Earlier, at PMQs, Ms Truss had insisted she would carry on PM despite the wholesale collpase of her economic platform.

"I am a fighter and not a quitter," she told Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer when he asked why she was still in post.

Under the rules of the 1922 committee, Ms Truss should be immune from a confidence vote for a year after becoming leader, however the rules can be changed relatively easily.

There were reports today that if a third of Tory MPs demanded a vote on the PM’s future, Sir Graham might speak to the PM about allowing it. The normal threshold is 15 per cent.

While if more than half of Tory MPs submitted letters of no confidence, it would show the PM no longer had the support of her parliamentary party, and Sir Graham might tell her the game was up.

Speaking before PMQs, Tory MP Miriam Cates said she wasn’t sure if Ms Truss should lead the party into the next election, despite feeling an “enormous amount of sympathy” for her.

She told GB News: “She’s a wife, she’s a mum, at the end of the day (it’s) incredibly challenging personal circumstances for her, but I do think the key thing here is to emit a message of stability.”

Asked about Ms Truss leading the Tories into the election, she said: “I don’t know. I mean, I think the polling is really bad.

“I don’t think we should always be following the polling and we shouldn’t be creating our policy off the back of polling, but I think the key thing I would like to see her and the Government address is this realignment that got us elected in 2019.”

After PMQs, Ms Cates said Ms Truss had given a “very confident” performance, but it was “too soon to say… what the future holds”.

Tory MP Steve Double also told BBC Radio 4 Ms Truss had “until the end of next week” to demonstrate she was worthy of remaining in Downing Street.

“She’s in the last chance saloon,” he said.