LONDON | Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned for good on Thursday after just six weeks at Downing Street, and Britain’s Conservatives are looking for a new leader in a country amid an economic and social crisis.
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“Given the situation, I cannot fulfill the mandate for which I was elected by the Conservative Party. So I spoke to His Majesty the King to let him know I was resigning,” the 47-year-old leader said outside 10 Downing Street in a very brief speech.
A vote to find him as his successor within the Conservative Party will take place “next week”, added the Prime Minister, who has spent the shortest time at Downing Street in modern British history, at just 44 days in office.
The chairman of the 1922 committee in charge of organizing the Conservative Party, Graham Brady, then clarified that the next prime minister would be appointed by October 28 and that the vote would see a maximum of two candidates running in a much shorter process than the election , which Liz Truss brought to Downing Street this summer.
“We recognize the need to resolve (this crisis) quickly and clearly in the national interest,” he said.
On Thursday morning the Prime Minister appeared still clinging to power, with a spokeswoman assuring that she was “working” with her Treasury Secretary Jeremy Hunt to prepare her medium-term economic plan, the day after a disastrous day for her.
But late in the morning Ms. Truss met with Mr. Brady. The list of Conservative MPs calling for his resignation grew by the hour.
Amid a cost of living crisis with millions of Britons suffering from inflation, the Conservative Party is resuming an internal election to find a new leader – the fifth in six years – while the previous one had been elected this summer, following the resignation of Boris Johnson, against a background of scandals at Downing Street and in the majority.
Who will the candidates be, while several names for Liz Truss’ successor have been circulating for days, such as that of Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt – the minister in charge of relations with Parliament – or even Boris Johnson, the prime minister she replaces has september?
demise
It was the presentation of a September 23 mini-budget that included subsidies for energy bills but also massive and unfunded tax cuts that brought about the end of Mrs. Truss. This plan had caused the pound to fall to an all-time low and sent the markets into a panic without causing a financial crisis without the Bank of England’s emergency intervention.
The pound edged up against the dollar on Thursday following the announcement of Liz Truss’ retirement.
Even after she sacked her finance minister and close friend Kwasi Kwarteng and then abandoned her plan, Ms Truss was never able to rise up and restore confidence in the Tory ranks. His already low popularity collapsed in the polls.
From then on, Liz Truss was sure she wanted to stay put, her upkeep at Downing Street seemed impossible. And especially since that disastrous Wednesday, marked by the departure of their home secretary, Suella Braverman, then by a melodrama in Parliament over the vote on a text that turned into a rat race between Conservative MPs.
“Embarrassment”
The Tories have opted to avoid a snap general election if the Labor opposition prances ahead in the polls.
Following Liz Truss’ announcement, her leader Keir Starmer called for general elections to be called “now” rather than late 2024 or early 2025 as planned.
This political storm in one of the most important world powers, in the middle of the war in Ukraine, was not absent internationally.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said he hopes Britain will regain “stability” “quickly”.
For its part, Russian diplomacy derided the announcement of Liz Truss’ resignation, believing that the country had “never experienced such embarrassment.”
In Godalming, a small Surrey town south of London, Sally Sherfield, a non-conservative pensioner, welcomed her departure. “I think it’s for the best that she goes,” even though she would have preferred general elections in hopes of bringing the opposition to power.
For Carmen Harvey-Browne, a retired teacher and Conservative voter, the situation had become “absolute chaos” and Truss “had to go.” She was “not made for this task,” she believes, and says she has “a little more hope” now.
Recall of the five British Prime Ministers with the shortest terms in office in a hundred years after the resignation on Thursday of Liz Truss, who stayed at Downing Street for just 44 days.
Liz Truss, 44 days
Former Foreign Secretary Liz Truss takes office on September 6, 2022 after Boris Johnson was forced to resign amid Downing Street scandals.
As the country’s third female prime minister, she defeated former finance minister Rishi Sunak with promises of huge tax cuts, winning over the party’s conservative base.
But the September 23 presentation of a mini-budget that included energy bill support and massive and unfunded tax cuts sparked market panic and sent the pound to historic lows.
The Bank of England is taking urgent action to prevent the situation from escalating into a financial crisis.
On Thursday, October 20, Liz Truss, weakened within her Conservative majority and more unpopular than ever with public opinion, throws in the towel.
Andrew Bonar Law, 209 days
Born in Canada in September 1858 to a Scottish pastor, Conservative Andrew Bonar Law became Prime Minister in October 1922.
At the end of a 209-day term, Bonar Law, nicknamed the “forgotten” prime minister, is resigning for health reasons. He died of cancer shortly thereafter.
Alec Douglas Home, 363 days
Alec Douglas-Home entered Downing Street in October 1963. It was curator Harold Macmillan who, ill, called on him to replace him.
Lord Home, heir to a large Scottish noble family, gave way to Labor a year later after Harold Wilson’s election victory in 1964.
Secretary of State to Edward Heath in the 1970s, he returned to the House of Lords at the end of his career.
Anthony Eden – 1 year and 279 days
On April 6, 1955, Conservative Anthony Eden, a brilliant chief of diplomacy, succeeded Winston Churchill, who retired.
Weakened by the fiasco of the Suez military expedition following Egyptian Abdel Nasser’s nationalization of the canal, he resigned on January 9, 1957, less than two years later.
Gordon Brown – 2 years, 319 days
Tony Blair’s finance minister, Labor Gordon Brown, won the support of party members and became prime minister in June 2007.
But the financial crisis of 2008 and his clumsy style shorten his tenure. This son of a Scottish pastor was beaten by Conservative David Cameron in the 2010 general election.
Some predecessors
In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was common for prime ministers to stay in office for less than a year.
Thus the Duke of Devonshire stayed only 225 days at the head of government in 1756-57, while the second Earl of Shelburne spent only 265 days there in 1782-83.
The Duke of Wellington, an all-time record for brevity, served just 22 days in his second term as Prime Minister in 1834.