British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation on Thursday just six weeks after coming to power, leaving the Conservative Party facing a new internal election.
“Given the situation, I cannot fulfill the mandate for which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” said Truss, who became the head of the British government who spent the least time in the executive. Truss specified that a new internal voting process will be organized between now and the end of next week to elect his replacement.
Truss is the shortest-serving prime minister in UK history. The record was held by George Canning, who lasted 119 days in office in 1827, until his death.
Leaders of the Conservative Party had gathered in Downing Street this morning, as a growing number of his own lawmakers called on him to resign.
Appointed on September 6, Truss was forced to fire her Chancellor of the Exchequer and closest political ally, Kwasi Kwarteng, and abandon nearly her entire economic program after her plans for large unfunded tax cuts sent the pound and British bonds.
His approval ratings and those of his Conservative Party plummeted.
Truss had lost the second of the government’s four top ministers — his home secretary, Suella Bravermany — on Wednesday and faced ridicule when he tried to defend his record in parliament. In addition, its lawmakers openly fought over politics, deepening the sense of chaos in Westminster.
New finance minister Jeremy Hunt is now racing to find tens of billions of pounds of spending cuts to try to reassure investors and restore the UK’s fiscal reputation as the economy heads into recession. with inflation at the highest level in the last 40 years.
For the conservatives, the challenge capable of uniting the party and inspiring confidence in a country that, beyond political chaos, is going through a major economic and social crisis, with inflation reaching 10.1% in September, the highest in 40 years .
Possible successors include Rishi Sunak, Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt and even Boris Johnson, Truss’s predecessor who resigned in the face of a series of scandals.
With information from AFP and Reuters
