Liz Truss resigns as UK Prime Minister after 45 days in office

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.

Read: Liz Truss elected as UK’s new Prime Minister