Liz Truss resigns as UK Prime Minister after 45 days in office
Truss was appointed as the country’s premier and leader of the Conservative Party on September 5
Liz Truss has resigned as the Prime Minister of the UK, only 45 days after her appointment to lead the country.
“I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability. Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills,” Truss said, in a statement outside 10 Downing Street, earlier today.
In full: Prime Minister @TrussLiz’s resignation statement. pic.twitter.com/UXTWBRyfLr
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) October 20, 2022
“Our country has been held back for too long by low economic growth. I was elected by the Conservative Party with a mandate to change this. We delivered on energy bills and on cutting national insurance. And we set out a vision for a low-tax, high-growth economy, that would taken advantage of the freedoms of Brexit.”
“I recognise though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I have therefore spoken His Majesty The King, to notify him that I am resigning as the leader of the Conservative Party,” Truss added.
There will be a leadership election to be completed in the next week.
This will ensure we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security.
I will remain as Prime Minister until a successor has been chosen.
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) October 20, 2022
Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, took to Twitter to issue a statement in the wake of Truss’s resignation.
After 12 years of Tory failure, the British people deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos.
We need a general election, now.
My full statement: pic.twitter.com/NAQz70eVke
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) October 20, 2022
Truss had been appointed the country’s Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party on September 5. She beat Rishi Sunak, a member of the Parliament and former chancellor of the exchequer, in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Britain’s third female PM after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.