By Leah Buist
Liz Truss has become the shortest-serving Prime Minister in UK history, announcing her resignation after just six weeks in office.
In a statement spoken earlier today outside No. 10, Ms Truss said:
“I cannot deliver the mandate in 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”.
Truss said that she stepped into her role as Prime Minister during a period of heightened economic instability.
“Families and business were worried about how to pay their bills. I was elected by the conservative party with a mandate to change this”.
Calls for Truss to step down as PM followed the mini-budget fiasco that occurred last month, which aimed to ease the cost-of-living crisis, but instead resulted in a sharp decline in the value of the pound against the US dollar. The subsequent resignations of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Home Secretary Suella Braverman, would also give rise to the former PM’s resignation.
A YouGov survey that was conducted last week revealed that only 10% of Britons had confidence in Ms Truss, with 4 out of 5 British adults viewing the recent former PM unfavourably.
Sky News political editor, Beth Rigby said: “She had the worst ratings of any prime Minister since
ratings began”.
Truss will remain Prime Minister for the next week while the country waits for a new leader to be elected.
Rigby said: “It’s nearly beyond belief that having ousted Boris Johnson in July, the conservative party having picked Liz Truss, have decided she is not up for the job and now we will have to see who we will replace her”.
The election of a new Prime Minister will mean that the UK has been under leadership by three different people in 2022 alone.
Watch Liz Truss resign as Prime Minister this morning outside 10 Downing street.
