Breaking News: Liz Truss Resigns As British Pm Just After Six Weeks In Office

Liz Truss has resigned as British 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 leadership election in the Conservative Party will be completed within the next week.

Speaking outside the door of her Number 10 Downing Street office, Ms Truss accepted that she could not deliver the promises she made when she was running for Conservative leader, having lost the faith of her party.

“I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party,” she said.

“This morning, I met the chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady. We’ve agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week. This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security.”

French president Emmanuel Macron said it was important that the UK finds “stability as soon as possible”, as he commented on Ms Truss’s resignation.

“We want, above all else, stability,” Mr Macron told reporters as he arrived at a European Union summit in Brussels. “On a personal level, I am always sad to see a colleague go,” he added.

In just six weeks as prime minister, Ms Truss has been forced to abandon almost all her policy programme after it triggered a bond market rout and a collapse of her approval ratings and those of her Conservative Party.

Since last Friday, she has lost two of the four most senior ministers in government. She also sat expressionless in parliament as her new finance minister ripped up her economic plans and faced howls of laughter as she tried to defend her record.

“We can’t go on like this,” one Conservative lawmaker said late on Wednesday, of the chaotic scenes in the UK parliament.
Ms Truss’s spokesman acknowledged Wednesday was a “difficult day” after the difficulties in parliament and the resignation of a senior minister.

Asked earlier on Thursday if Ms Truss would lead the Conservative Party into the next election after several lawmakers called for her to stand down, the spokesman said: “Yes”.

The sight of yet another unpopular prime minister resigning underscores just how volatile British politics has become since the 2016 vote to leave the EU unleashed a battle for the direction of the country.

Ms Truss became Britain’s fourth prime minister in six years after being elected in September to lead the Conservative Party by its members, not the broader electorate, and with support from only around a third of the party’s lawmakers. She promised tax cuts funded by borrowing, deregulation and a sharp shift to the right on cultural and social issues.

Her abrupt loss of authority comes as the British economy heads into recession and finance minister Jeremy Hunt races to find tens of billions of pounds of spending cuts to reassure investors who took fright at Ms Truss’s policy proposals.

Government borrowing costs, while lower than they were at the height of the crisis last week, remain elevated as investors question who is in charge and whether Mr Hunt will be able to rebuild the UK’s once-sound economic reputation.

Crispin Blunt, a Conservative lawmaker for 25 years, told Reuters the situation was so grave that his colleagues needed to allow one person with experience to take control.

“Personal considerations and ambition now must be set aside,” he said, adding that he would back Mr Hunt as leader.

Other candidates to replace Ms Truss include former chancellor Rishi Sunak – who warned that her economic policy would damage the economy – or Penny Mordaunt, a minister who is popular with many strands of the party.

Ms Truss has been fighting for political survival since September 23rd when her then-chancellor and close ally, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced a ‘mini-budget’ of vast, unfunded tax cuts that sent shockwaves through financial markets.

She fired Mr Kwarteng on Friday and accepted the resignation of her interior minister, Suella Braverman, on Wednesday.

With opinion polls showing the Conservatives face a wipeout at the next election, some lawmakers say Ms Truss must go so they can try to rebuild their brand. Others seem to have given up.