THE former head of the civil service has admitted he is not the “slightest bit surprised” that Liz Truss has resigned as Prime Minister.

Lord Bob Kerslake told the Daily Echo he could not remember anything in government quite like the past few weeks.

Ms Truss announced she was stepping down as leader of the Conservative Party in a brief Downing Street statement after just 44 days in Number 10.

Lord Kerslake, who was recently appointed chairman of BCP Council’s urban regeneration company BCP Future Places, said: “I have to say I am not the slightest bit surprised.

“As I said on the Today programme this morning, the government was not working in any way, shape or form and something had to be done really either to get a grip or accept they couldn’t and promote a general election – one or the other had to happen.

“My personal thought was she would go today and that’s what has happened.

“I didn’t exactly know when and how, but it did look that way to get back some stability.

“The point I would make is Westminster has these crises and events all the time but this was having real affects on people’s lives. The high interest rates, the issues or service backlogs and so on. There were real consequences of the current chaos and they couldn’t really continue."

Lord Kerslake described recent national political events as “completely unchartered”.

“I cannot remember anything close to this in my public career one way or another as a civil servant or in local government,” he said. “To have a leader elected and then deposed in this time scale is extraordinary.”

A new leader of the Conservative Party is expected to be in place by Friday, October 28.