After just six weeks in office, the United Kingdom’s (UK) Prime Minister Liz Trus has announced her resignation from her role as UK’s PM.
Trus, announced her resignation outside Downing Street today (20 October), making her the shortest-serving Prime Minister in UK history.
She decided to step down from both her role as the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister and the Leader of the COjust 44 days after she took office on 6 September this year.
And here’s everything you need to know about what’s been made known so far.
Resignation Speech
Truss, 47, gave a speech that lasted for one minute and 40 seconds to explain her resignation from office.
“I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability,” she said.
She talked about how UK had been “held back for too long by low economic growth”, and that she was “elected by the Conservative Party with a mandate to change this”.
“We delivered on energy bills and on cutting national insurance.
“And we set out a vision for a low tax, high growth economy – that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit,” she recounted.
“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 explained, adding that she had met with Sir Graham Brady, Chair of the 1922 Committee, in the morning.
The 1922 Committee is the committee that facilitates the changing of the Conservative Party’s leader, and is in charge of the relevant rules with regards to that as well.
She concluded by noting that she will continue to act as UK’s Prime Minister until the country chooses its next PM, and said that a “leadership election” will take place over the next week.
“This will ensure we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security,” Truss said.
Prior to Truss’ resignation, the shortest-serving Prime Minister was George Canning.
He served as UK’s PM for 119 days before dying in office in 1827.
First Social Media Update After Resigning
Truss has also taken to Twitter for the first time after her resignation, and she attached an image of her giving her speech with the following caption:
In the comments section, many netizens have posted negative comments regarding her actions as the UK’s PM.
“So. 65 Billion quid, divided by your 45 days as PM.
“YOU have cost the country AT LEAST 1.4 BILLION QUID A DAY,” one commenter wrote.
Chaos After Taking Office
After Truss stepped up as UK’s PM in September, issues regarding her policies such as her mini-budget evoked much anger amongst those in the UK.
The mini-budget included a major tax-cutting scheme and a policy to set a limit on energy bills in the UK.
This caused the pound and British bonds to crash at an alarming rate, causing much uproar.
Thereafter, chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that Truss’ plans to cut back on taxes will no longer be put into action, and her scheme on capping energy bills will be scaled back in order to try and bring the pound back to stable rates.
Truss Fired Her Chancellor and Pushed Blame Onto Him
Just five days before that, Truss was apparently forced to fire Kwasi Kwarteng, who acted as her chancellor.
The role was filled in by Jeremy Hunt, the UK’s former foreign secretary and health secretary.
In particular, Truss had pushed all the blame for the mini-budget issue on Kwawrteng even though it was a collaboration between the two.
After sacking Kwarteng, she was questioned as to why she should remain as PM since she also publicly expressed support and approval of the tax-cutting measures that Kwarteng had taken responsibility for.
She was not able to explain why.
Lost Another Minister Yesterday
After losing Kwarteng, another minister also chose to resign from Truss’ government.
UK’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman decided to quit on Wednesday (19 October), making her the second senior minister to leave Truss’ cabinet over the span of just a week.
Faced Jeering and Booing in Parliament
In recent days, Truss has also faced much jeering and booing from others in Parliament while trying to defend her policies and actions.
Despite the laughter and ridicule she faced, she went on to say that she was “a fighter, not a quitter”.
During a vote on Labour motion over fracking that took place yesterday (19 October), chaos also ensued in the voting lobbies after people started to act in a rowdy manner.
Failed to Uphold Courtesy Call
Yup, that’s not all.
Beyond one’s abilities in politics, in modern times, the UK’s Prime Minister is supposed to make a courtesy call to the first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland after stepping up as PM.
However, it appears that Truss did not do so even after a month in office, for it was revealed that she had not called Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, or Mark Drakeford, Wales’ First Minister.
This was further brought up today (20 October) in one of Sturgeon’s tweets in response to a BBC Scotland political reporter.
Over a Dozen MPs Have Urged Her to Step Down
Since Truss’ incompetence was revealed in the UK, more than a dozen MPs in the UK have urged her to step down as PM.
The MPs who have publicly asked Truss to resign include Crispin Blunt, Andrew Bridgen, Jamie Wallis, Angela Richardson, Sir Charles Walker, William Wragg, Sheryll Murray, Gary Streeter, Henry Smith, Steve Double, Miriam Cates, Siobhan Baillie and Matthew Offord.
Liberals Fighting For Election to Take Place Now
As for the liberals, they have been calling for an “immediate” general election to take place.
Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, released a statement after Truss’ resignation saying that “The Conservative Party has shown it no longer has a mandate to govern.”
He criticised the Conservative Party’s failures over the past 12 years and claimed that the British people “deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos”.
He also claimed that the Conservative Party has left the UK “worse off”.
“The British public deserve a proper say on the country’s future. They must have the chance to compare the Tories’ chaos with Labour’s plans to sort out their mess, grow the economy for working people and rebuild the country for a fairer, greener future. We must have a chance at a fresh start. We need a general election – now,” he concluded.
Other parties such as the Green Party, the Lib Dems and the Scottish National Party have also called for an election to take place.
Possible PM Candidates
After Truss announced her resignation, Sir Graham Brady clarified that a new leader should be elected by next Friday (28 October).
Other Conservative politicians in the UK such as Jeremy Hunt, Tom Tugendhat and Michael Gove have allegedly said that they will not be running for the position of PM and Leader of the Conservative Party.
On the other hand, names such as Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch and even former PM Boris Johnson have been rumoured to be possible candidates for the upcoming election.
To understand why, in the first place, this happened, you might want to watch this to the end, whereby we simplified the whole incident with Singapore examples:
Featured Image: Facebook (Liz Truss)