British PM fires Chancellor of Exchequer 38 days after assuming office

Both of them are widely regarded as long-time allies and South London neighbours

The two had become members of parliament (MPs) in 2010 and were described as being like ‘Batman and Robin’.

Truss was believed to have taken the decision to Kwarteng in order to save her premiership.

On account of that decision, Mr Kwarteng has become the second shortest-serving Chancellor in modern British political history, after Iain Macleod who died 30 days after taking the job in 1970.

When Ms Truss entered No10 last month and Mr Kwarteng moved into No11, there were expectations that frequent tensions between No10 and the Treasury – a feature of British politics in recent years – would end.

A sign of their close relationship was the fact they had become not just neighbours in Downing Street, but were also neighbours in the same leafy south London borough.

Kwarteng moved to the same Greenwich Street as Ms Truss earlier this year.

Their friendship dates back to 2010 when they first entered Parliament together following that year’s general election.

Mr Kwarteng was a member of the Free Enterprise group of Tory MPs that Ms Truss founded in 2011, which aimed to ‘free individuals to create, innovate and take risks’.