UK Prime Minister Liz Truss resigns after 6 weeks in office
After six weeks in office, United Kingdom Prime Minister Liz Truss announced Thursday that she will resign, making her term as prime minister the shortest in the nation's history.
In a statement outside 10 Downing Street, Truss said she "came into office at a time of great economic and international instability."
"I was elected by the Conservative Party with a mandate to change this," she said. "We delivered on energy bills and on cutting national insurance. We set out a vision for a low tax, high growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"I recognize though, given the situation, that I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party," she added. "I have therefore spoken to his majesty, the king, to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party."
Truss further stated that "there will be a leadership election within the next week," which will "ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country's economic stability and national security."
Truss will remain in office until a successor has been selected.
A champion of tax cuts and a critic of "woke" identity politics, the former foreign secretary was elected as prime minister in early September after the resignation of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in July. Johnson left office following a series of controversies that led to several resignations.
Truss' announcement on Thursday contrasts with her remarks the day before during a session of Parliament. She said she was "a fighter and not a quitter" in response to criticism from her own party over her economic proposals.
Sir Keir Starmer, head of the Labor Party, released a statement shortly after the resignation announcement, calling for a general election. Starmer contends that Britons "deserve a proper say on the country's future."
"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," Starmer claimed.
"The Tories cannot respond to their latest shambles by yet again simply clicking their fingers and shuffling the people at the top without the consent of the British people. They do not have a mandate to put the country through yet another experiment."
Truss is the third woman to hold the office, with conservative Margaret Thatcher being the first female prime minister in 1979.
