Liz Truss Steps Down After Only 6 Weeks as British Prime Minister

British Prime Minister Liz Truss abruptly announced she is stepping down, just six weeks after assuming office.

Truss surrendered to the inevitable when her right-wing tax-cut plan crumbled, and many Conservative Party MPs revolted.

Truss stated in front of 10 Downing Street that she would remain Prime Minister until a new successor is chosen to serve as Tory leader. Party officials stated that the next leader would be chosen on October 28th.

“I recognize that, given the circumstances, I am unable to carry out the mandate for which I was chosen by the Conservative Party,” Liz Truss stated. “As a result, I have informed His Majesty the King that I am retiring as Conservative Party leader.”

Truss, 47, resigned after only 44 days in office, making him the shortest-serving prime minister in British history.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, whose opposition party has risen in opinion polls — it now leads the Conservatives by 30 points — as a result of Truss’ crisis-plagued term, has called a general election “right now.”

Tory MPs rebelled against Liz Truss

In dramatic scenes at the House of Commons late Wednesday, Truss’s tenure came to an end as a senior minister resigned, and numerous Tory MPs rebelled over a vital vote.

Over a dozen Conservative MPs had publicly asked Liz Truss to resign by Thursday morning after her tax-cutting ideas sparked a market meltdown during an already severe cost-of-living crisis.

Many more were said to have sent letters demanding her removal, despite the fact that party rules would have barred her from running for office again for a year.

“The prime minister acknowledged yesterday was a challenging day,” her official spokesman said. “She recognizes the public expected to see the government concentrating less on politics and more on fulfilling their priorities.”

She left after two hours.

Things came to a head on Wednesday after what The Sun called “a day of unparalleled mayhem.”

Home Secretary Suella Braverman resigned, ostensibly at Truss’ request, after sending a government document in a personal email.

Scenes in parliament

However, Braverman, an outspoken right-winger with widespread popularity among Tory members, used her resignation letter to launch a scathing attack on Truss.

There were then ludicrous scenes in parliament as several Tory MPs defied the government’s insistence that they withdraw the party’s manifesto vow to keep fracking banned.

Accusations arose of heavy-handed efforts to whip MPs into line, with several subsequently telling the media that it was the final nail in the Truss premiership’s coffin.

The party is now attempting to avoid a long leadership election by rallying around a unity candidate to replace her.

Truss defeated former finance minister Rishi Sunak in the leadership campaign after Boris Johnson resigned in July — but Johnson loyalists have pledged to prevent Sunak from being crowned now.

And Johnson, despite being at the centre of a series of scandals that eventually proved too much for his party to bear, is rumoured to be a viable candidate, according to The Telegraph.

“He’s listening but is believed to believe it’s an issue of national interest,” said Times political editor Steven Swinford.

Truss’ difficulties

Despite the short schedule, it is predicted that around 170,000 Conservative Party members will be participating in some way in the leadership process. Unless only one candidate remains, according to party rules, two candidates will be presented to the membership.

Truss’ difficulties began when her centerpiece tax-cutting strategy triggered market volatility, threatening the country’s pension funds and forcing her to make humiliating U-turns.

On Wednesday, Liz Truss removed close ally Kwasi Kwarteng over the budget catastrophe, replacing him with Jeremy Hunt, who quickly reversed almost all policy announcements.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Braverman departed following a “heated face-to-face row” with Truss and Hunt “about their requests to modify her stance on immigration.”

Despite removing Braverman as transportation secretary when she assumed power, Truss nominated Grant Shapps to replace him.

Both Shapps and Hunt had backed Sunak for the job, leaving her isolated inside her own government.

Braverman’s resignation letter came just hours after Truss used a combative speech in parliament to allay questions about her leadership.

Truss was slammed by Labour’s Starmer at her first Prime Minister’s Questions since the budget reversals.

As opposition MPs jeered and booed Truss and her own party’s MPs stayed mute, Starmer challenged the House of Commons, “What’s the sense of a prime minister whose pledges don’t even last a week?”

Truss’ successor will be the party’s fifth premier in less than seven years following the 2016 Brexit referendum, which ushered in an era of unprecedented political upheaval in the United Kingdom.