Liz Truss is out as UK Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party after just six weeks in office.
Truss announced her resignation this morning during a nationally televised address, saying she had informed the King of her move.
“I recognize given the situation I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative party,” Truss said as she resigned.
A Conservative party leadership race will take place in the coming week to find Truss’s replacement. Her successor will be the UK’s third prime minister this year.
Truss and her beleaguered government have faced severe pressure from opposition parties as well as her colleagues since the publication of a ‘mini-budget’ by former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in September, which resulted in the British pound falling to an all-time low against the dollar.
Under the plans, which Kwarteng described as a “new era” for the UK economy, a planned rise in corporation taxes was scrapped. Income tax and stamp duty on home purchases were also cut, and the top rate of income tax of 45% for people earning over £150,000 a year was binned.
Kwarteng was sacked following the fallout over the budget. In his resignation letter, Kwarteng, who was one of Truss’s most loyal allies, wrote: “You have asked me to stand aside as your Chancellor. I have accepted.”
Kwarteng was replaced by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who repealed almost the economic plans Truss and Kwarteng had outlined in the budget.
The mayhem continued on Oct 19, just five days after Kwarteng’s exit, when Truss’s home secretary Suella Braverman announced that she was resigning. Braverman said she was stepping down due to the misuse of her personal email, although both Conservative insiders and pundits have suggested that she was forced out by Truss and her new chancellor Hunt.
In a scathing resignation letter, Braverman appeared to make reference to Truss. She wrote: “Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics. I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign.”
Braverman’s resignation, however, was quickly overshadowed by the chaos that ensued later that evening at a crucial Commons vote on the future of fracking in UK that descended into mayhem after more than 40 Conservative MPs, including former PM Boris Johnson, decided not to back Liz Truss’s government, with members alleging some undecided Tory MPs were “physically manhandled” into the voting booths.
Miriam Cates, an executive member of the 1922 committee, the influential group of Tory MPs who oversee the election of party leaders, said Truss’s “position does look difficult if not impossible”.
Charles Walker, the vice-chair of the 1922 committee, gave a much more definitive assessment of Truss’s position, telling the BBC that there was “no coming back” for the prime minister and her government.
“I expect the prime minister to resign very soon because she’s not up to her job,” Walker said.
Liz Truss was named UK Prime Minister in September, replacing Boris Johnson and defeating Rishi Sunak to become the third woman to hold the office. Her predecessor Johnson also left in turmoil after the resignation of dozens of MPs relating to various scandals during his time in office.
