AUS
NZ
UK
CA
USA
IND
Highlights:
- Liz Truss has resigned as the PM after facing pressures over the economic crisis.
- She has now become the UK's shortest-serving PM quitting in just 45 days.
Just weeks after taking up the job, British prime minister Liz Truss resigned from the job on Thursday, saying she cannot deliver the mandate that she was elected on.
Speaking outside Downing Street, Truss said that she has told King Charles that she was stepping down as the leader of the Conservative Party. She added that she met with 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady on Thursday, and they agreed to a leadership election within the next week. Truss will remain the PM until her successor is chosen.
Truss said she took on the job at a time of "great economic and international instability", adding that her government provided energy bill support and also reversed the rise in National Insurance.
The latest development hints at the unprecedented crisis that the UK is currently going through. This is also the quickest turnover of power the country has seen. Truss' tenure as the PM is the shortest in UK's history. The previous record was set by George Canning in 1827, who died after being in the role for 119 days.
Ironically, just a day ago, Truss had said at the Prime Minister's Questions that she was a "fighter, not a quitter" when asked why hadn't resigned.
The UK will now have a third prime minister this year.
Truss was under extreme pressure after the tax-cutting bonanza in the mini-budget, announced by the previous chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, sent the financial markets into chaos. However, instead of solving problems, the budget created more. Truss was blamed for causing the financial crisis in the country, and her own MPs demanded her resignation from the post. Truss had sacked Kwarteng earlier this week.
Most of the tax cuts have now been reversed by new chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
In the list of who could be the next PM, former chancellor Rishi Sunak is said to be at the top, followed by Penny Mordaunt and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.
Opposition parties have called for an immediate general election in the country.
