Liz Truss may have won first Commons battle but the Government is falling apart in front of us

IT was all going so well. Against the odds, embattled Liz Truss yesterday survived her first Commons battle since sacking her Chancellor and dumping her mini-Budget.

Then it all went pear-shaped in astonishing scenes last night as rebel MPs conspired with Labour to sabotage this tragic Prime Minister’s commitment to fracking.

This is Britain’s chance to follow America and perhaps become self-sufficient in gas and oil while the world goes short.

Any government with a 75-seat majority should be able to defy the eco-loons who would rather see us freeze each winter.

It was astonishing to see Tories wrestling each other in the voting lobbies over the totemic bill.

Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg and Deputy PM Therese Coffey were accused of — and denied — manhandling undecided Tories into the pro-fracking camp.

Well-known Truss critics joined moderate supporters in furious protest.

In the end, the Government won this battle.

But Liz Truss lost her Chief Whip and her deputy, who quit or were sacked.

Last night’s slender voting majority reveals an increasingly bitter Tory civil war which has turned party rebels into a more lethal opposition than the Labour Party itself.

It is hard to keep track as Cabinet ministers fly off into outer space, one after another.

In little more than a week, two of our four great offices of state — HM Treasury and the Home Office — have lost their leading ministers.

This government is disintegrating before our eyes.