Liz Truss resigns as PM, successor to be elected next week

Liz Truss resigns as PM, successor to be elected next week
October 20, 2022, 3:30 pm

File photo. Liz Truss official Facebook page

Liz Truss has resigned as prime minister and will step down after a week-long emergency contest to find her successor, she has announced outside Downing Street.

Opposition parties called for an immediate general election, saying the Conservatives had no mandate to govern.

A leadership election will be completed within the next week to replace Truss, who is the shortest serving prime minister in Britain's history. George Canning previously held the record, serving 119 days in 1827, when he died.

Speaking outside the door of her Number 10 Downing Street office and residence, 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.

Passengers queue for busses outside Victoria Station London, on August 19, 2022, as strike action on Buses, National Rail and London Underground affects services. (AFP)

"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."

"I will remain as prime minister until a successor has been chosen. Thank you."

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Keir Starmer said: “After 12 years of Tory failure, the British people deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos. In the last few years, the Tories have set record-high taxation, trashed our institutions and created a cost-of-living crisis. Now, they have crashed the economy so badly that people are facing £500 a month extra on their mortgages. The damage they have done will take years to fix.”

Conservative lawmakers say her most likely successors are either her leadership rival, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, or Penny Mordaunt, who came third in the race to become the next prime minister just six weeks ago.

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