Liz Truss announced on Thursday she was quitting after just 44 days in No10, becoming Britain’s shortest serving Prime Minister.
Speaking in Downing Street at roughly 1.30pm, she told the nation she was resigning after an open revolt by Tory MPs against her chaotic and crisis-hit premiership.
She announced she was going after holding talks with Sir Graham Brady, chair of the influential 1922 committee of Conservative MPs, and her closest allies, Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey and Tory chairman Jake Berry.
The Conservatives now faced a race to choose a new leader, with the party bitterly divided. Any candidate needs to be backed by 100 MPs by 2pm on Monday.
Ms Truss’s decision to stand down means she becomes the shortest serving Prime Minister in British history.
The expected candidates:
Boris Johnson - said by allies to be interested in running and returning to power, currently on holiday in the Caribbean
Rishi Sunak - The runner up to Liz Truss is widely expected to go for the top job again
Suella Braverman - Arguably her resignation brought about Liz Truss’s demise and popular in the right wing of the party
Penny Mordaunt - A possible contender as a unity candidate and is seen as a safe pair of hands
Kemi Badenoch - Relatively inexperienced but seen as a rising star in the Conservative Parliamentary Party
Confirmed to not be running:
Jeremy Hunt, James Cleverly, Michael Gove
