LONDON: British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Thursday dramatically announced her resignation just six weeks after taking office.
Truss bowed to the inevitable after her right-wing platform of tax cuts disintegrated and as many MPs among the ruling Conservative Party revolted.
Speaking in front of 10 Downing Street, Truss said she would stay on as prime minister until a successor is chosen to serve as Tory leader. Party officials said the new leader would be picked by Oct 28.
“I recognise that given the situation I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” Truss said. “I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.”
Truss, 47, quit after just 44 days in office, and will become the shortest-ruling prime minister in British history.
Labour leader Keir Starmer, whose opposition party has surged in opinion polls — it leads the Tories by 30 points — on the back of Truss’s crisis-plagued tenure, demanded a general election “now”.
Key resignation
The end for Truss came after a key minister resigned and many Tory MPs rebelled over an important vote in chaotic scenes at the House of Commons late Wednesday.
By Thursday morning, more than a dozen Conservative MPs had publicly urged Truss to resign, after her tax-cutting plans caused a market meltdown during an already severe cost-of-living crisis.
Many more were reported to have submitted letters calling for her to be removed, although party rules would have forbidden another leadership campaign for 12 months.
“The prime minister acknowledges yesterday was a difficult day and she recognises the public wanted to see the government focusing less on politics and more on delivering their priorities,” her official spokesman told reporters.
Barely two hours later, she quit.
Events reached a head after what The Sun newspaper called “a day of extraordinary mayhem” on Wednesday.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman left, apparently at Truss’s demand after she sent a government document in a personal email.
But Braverman, an arch right-winger who enjoys strong support among the Tory membership, used her resignation message to attack Truss in blistering terms.
There then followed farcical scenes in parliament as many Tory MPs rebelled against the government’s demand that they drop the party’s manifesto commitment to maintain a ban on fracking.
Accusations swirled of heavy-handed efforts to whip MPs into line, some of whom later briefed the media that it was the nail in the coffin of the Truss premiership.
Unity candidate
Now, the party is looking to avoid a lengthy leadership contest by consolidating around a unity candidate for her replacement.
Truss beat former finance minister Rishi Sunak in the leadership race after Boris Johnson announced his resignation in July — but Johnson supporters have vowed to block a coronation for Sunak now.
And Johnson himself, despite having been at the centre of a series of scandals that finally became too much for his party to endure, is said to be a possible contender, The Times reported.
“He’s taking soundings but is said to believe it is a matter of national interest,” Times political editor Steven Swinford said.
Despite the short timeline, it is expected that Conservative Party members, who number about 170,000, will be involved in the leadership process in some form. Party rules say two candidates would be put forward to the membership, unless there is only one candidate remaining.
“It will be possible to conduct a ballot and conclude a leadership election by Friday the 28th of October. So we should have a new leader in place before the fiscal statement which will take place on (October) the 31st,” said Graham Brady, chairman of the influential 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers. (Story continues below)
Humiliating U-turns
Truss’s woes began when her showpiece tax-slashing policy sparked market chaos that threatened the country’s pension funds, forcing her into a series of humiliating U-turns.
Braverman’s departure on Wednesday triggered the second reshuffle this month after Truss sacked close ally Kwasi Kwarteng over the budget debacle, replacing him with Jeremy Hunt, who swiftly reversed almost all the policy announcements.
The Daily Telegraph reported that Braverman left after a “heated face-to-face row” with Truss and Hunt “over their demands to soften her stance on immigration”.
Truss appointed Grant Shapps to replace Braverman despite firing him as transport secretary when she took office.
Both Shapps and Hunt had supported Sunak for the leadership, leaving her isolated in her own cabinet.
Braverman’s resignation message came hours after Truss sought to dispel doubts over her leadership with a combative appearance in parliament.
Truss faced harsh putdowns from Labour’s Starmer as she took part in her first Prime Minister’s Questions since the budget U-turns.
Starmer asked the House of Commons: “What’s the point of a prime minister whose promises don’t even last a week?”, as opposition MPs jeered and booed Truss, and her own party’s MPs remained silent.
Truss’s successor will become the party’s fifth premier in less than seven years since the 2016 Brexit referendum ushered in a period of unprecedented chaos in British politics.
