British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation at a speech outside Downing Street Thursday after just six weeks in office.
Truss won the Conservative Party’s vote after her predecessor, Boris Johnson, likewise resigned following several defections from within his own party. Truss’s own record includes the resignations of two ministers and a tax plan that sent markets tanking as the country struggles with a 40-year high in cost of living, according to the BBC.
“I recognize… given the situation I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” Truss said, according to the BBC.
Members of Truss’ own party bailed in recent weeks, calling for a vote of no confidence, the BBC reported. Alleged bullying from Truss during a vote to end a ban on fracking, according to a member of the opposition Labor party, and vitriolic fighting within Parliament added to the pressure for Truss to step down.
Truss’ home secretary, Suella Braverman, resigned Wednesday after her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng left his post after delivering a disastrous “mini-budget,” the BBC reported. Kwarteng’s successor, Jeremy Hunt, subsequently overturned nearly all of the tax cuts included in the original budget in a bid to rebalance the economy. (RELATED: ‘The Mute With The Deaf’: Russian And British Ministers Have Harsh Exchange)
The move was not enough to save Truss’ energy price cap, which will be discontinued in April rather than lasting a promised full two years, the BBC reported.
The British people rightly want stability, which is why we are addressing the serious challenges we face in worsening economic conditions.
We have taken action to chart a new course for growth that supports and delivers for people across the United Kingdom. https://t.co/P3yglx6efZ
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) October 17, 2022
Truss noted that she arrived in office during a period of “great economic and international instability,” including an international energy crunch that has hit the U.K. particularly hard and a raging war in Ukraine that is wreaking havoc on the continent, according to the BBC.
She campaigned on implementing largest tax cuts in 50 years as part of a strategy to spur economic growth while keeping government spending up, but the expected revenue loss — £45 billion ($49 billion) in anticipated revenue over five years, as of Sept. 23 — sent the British pound plummeting to historic lows against the dollar.
Truss will be the shortest-serving minister in British history, according to the BBC.
The Conservative Party MPs will hold a leadership contest within the next week, as Truss intends to stay on as prime minister until then.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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