British Prime Minister Liz Truss is fighting to save her position as she sacked her chancellor and close ally Kwasi Kwarteng, and scraped parts of an unpopular economic package.

Reports of a number of Tory MPs plotting to replace her surfaced as the financial markets continued to stay unstable.

The chancellor was sacked by Truss after only 38 days in the position. The move came after a shocking market reaction to Kwarteng’s announcement of wide-ranging and unfunded tax cuts as part of a “mini-budget” last month.

This also included a plan to cut the lowest income tax rate from 20 to 19 percent and reduce the highest rate from 45 to 40 percent.

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While Truss hoped that Kwarteng’s removal would restore some of her rapidly draining political authority, the move put her in a perilous position.

Kwarteng was replaced by former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, who backed her rival Rishi Sunak in the recent leadership election.

At a news conference, Truss said the corporation tax will rise to 25 percent from April next year, adding that this was aimed at boosting the public finances by 18 billion pounds ($20 nillion).

However, Truss has failed to bring in sufficient confidence among MPs towards her political abilities.

“It is clear that parts of our mini-budget went further and faster than markets were expecting,” Truss said at a press conference Friday “So the way we are delivering our mission right now has to change. We need to act now to reassure the markets of our fiscal discipline.”

Conservative MPs are reportedly working on removing Truss from office less than seven weeks after she took up the role. 

If Truss is replaced, it would make her premiership the shortest in more than 300 years of British politics. 

Meanwhile, Labour leader Keir Starmer described the government as “completely at the end of the road.”

Also Read | UK PM Liz Truss scraps parts of tax plan in bid to remain in office

“Their party is completely exhausted and clapped out,” Starmer continued. “It has got no ideas, it can’t face the future and it has left the U.K. in a defensive crouch where we are not facing the challenges of the future.”

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, called Truss a “lame duck prime minister,” adding that she had “trashed the economy and heaped misery on people who were already struggling with a cost of living crisis.”

A debate about a motion for an early general election will take place in the parliament on Monday. According to polls, 61% of the British public believes there should be a general election.

Former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi tweeted: “It’s time to get Britain moving. We are determined to grow the economy, eliminate the Covid backlog and protect people from Putin’s energy warfare.”