The Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, is out of his job.

He therefore becomes the second shortest-serving UK Chancellor on record. The shortest-serving chancellor was Ian Macleod who died of a heart attack 30 days after taking the job in 1970.

Only yesterday Kwarteng was saying he was 100% confident of being in post next month. It looks as if his prediction was optimistic.

Kwarteng is a key ally of the Prime Minister, Liz Truss, but his recent ‘mini budget’ caused turmoil in the financial markets and his position as Chancellor has been in doubt ever since. The impact of his decisions have been widely felt in the property world as interest rates rose and mortgage borrowing became more expensive – a trend that shows no sign of abating any time soon.

Truss will hold a news conference later today, amid speculation that the government is going to perform a U-turn and reverse more of the tax cuts that had been announced by Kwarteng – who cut short his visit to the USA and flew back to the UK for urgent talks with the Prime Minister this morning.

Earlier, a No 10 source had told the BBC that Truss thought the chancellor was “doing an excellent job”

It is reported that former the health secretary and Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Jeremy Hunt, will take over the newly vacated role at No 11 Downing Street.