Liz Truss said on Thursday she was resigning as Prime Minister.
She was brought down by her economic programme that sent shockwaves through the markets and divided her Conservative Party just six weeks after she was appointed.
A leadership election will be completed within the next week.
Speaking outside the door of her Number 10 Downing Street office, Truss accepted that she could not deliver the promises she made when she was running for Conservative leader, having lost the faith of her party.
“I recognise though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party,” she said.
“This morning I met the chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady. We’ve agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week. This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security.”
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, left, welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (Jane Barlow/Pool Photo via AP, File)
In six weeks as prime minister, Truss had been forced to abandon almost all her policy programme after it triggered a bond market rout and a collapse of her approval ratings and those of her Conservative Party.
Since last Friday she has lost two of the four most senior ministers in government, sat expressionless in parliament as her new finance minister ripped up her economic plans and faced howls of laughter as she tried to defend her record.
“We can’t go on like this,” one Conservative lawmaker told Reuters late on Wednesday, of the chaotic scenes in parliament.
First published in Indian Express
