THIS week the revolving door of No 10 was again spinning at full pelt, with the ridiculed and incompetent Liz Truss exiting, her place taken by Rishi Sunak, the youngest Prime Minister in 200 years and the first Asian to become leader of the country.

Despite having recently been rejected by party members he becomes the UK’s third Tory PM in less than two months and the fifth to have been foisted on the British public in the past six years – the fastest turnover of leaders for nearly a century.

It was a miraculous feat in regeneration which I thought only Doctor Who could pull off. It seems the Tory Party has its very own Tardis, one which is able to regenerate and churn out a new leader every time the Tories are pummelled in the polls for making catastrophic errors in governance – which at the moment, appears to be every other day.

So are we again consigned to years of insufferable austerity or worse? Well, with Rishi the Robot's “strong and stable” hands on the tiller maybe not. There is a small glimmer of hope that he may just be capable and clever enough to correct and reverse the catastrophic damage his party has inflicted on the nation and ease the worries before the Tories are eventually kicked out.

His vital interventions during the pandemic were inspired. He should be given immense credit for introducing the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, a £70 billion furlough plan which saved millions of jobs and thousands of businesses. He should also be praised for his £800 million Eat Out to Help Out discount scheme, which boosted the fortunes of thousands of struggling restaurants and pubs during the summer of 2020 and saved many from going under.

Timely financial interventions such as those are desperately needed again.

I agree with Colin Wilkinson, CEO of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA), when he says: “Hopefully the appointment of Rishi Sunak will finally bring what we all need – a period of stable government to tackle all the challenges facing not just our sector, but the country in general. The chaotic and self-destructive actions of the Westminster Government over the last few months have been nothing but a comical farce and nobody is laughing. We need stability, some certainty and the right support to get us through the challenges we all face. Untold damage has already been inflicted on businesses directly caused by the Westminster Government, which now must deliver on the needs of the UK and support those businesses facing the greatest threats, not just in the short term, but for the foreseeable future."

As Chancellor, Mr Sunak recognised the importance of the hospitality industry during the pandemic and introduced measures to specifically help the sector. He must now continue that recognition as Prime Minister to address the threats of mass businesses closures (already one per hour over the last three months in the UK).

The industry is united in calls for a reduction in VAT rates, further business rates relief, as well as a complete review of business rates. These should be the top priority right now. The token support on wholesale energy prices is simply not good enough.

A recent survey carried out by the SLTA showed that 87% of pubs and bars in Scotland urgently need Government support to survive the winter. Action is needed now.

Huge swathes of the population are finding it difficult to afford their energy bills, rent, or mortgage payments as the cost of living crisis escalates. A cold winter of discontent looms ever nearer, threatening to further cripple the economy, and businesses from all sectors, particularly in the hospitality sector, will start to wither and die. There are many problems demanding the PM's immediate attention. I can only hope that his final throw of the dice in this last-chance saloon finally pays off.

Read more by Donald MacLeod:

There may be little Christmas cheer for our pubs and clubs

We should demand the right to pay in cash