British Prime Minister Liz Truss decided to resign and quit her job on Thursday, succumbing to the inevitable after a turbulent term in which her policies reportedly caused financial market turmoil and a rebellion in her party that obliterated her authority.
While addressing the nation in front of the No 10 Downing Street office, Liz Truss stated that “I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.”
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Truss becomes the third Conservative prime minister to resign in as many years, leaving her party that is already fractured in search of a leader capable of uniting them all. Truss, who has said she will stay in office until a replacement is found, has only been prime minister for six weeks.
Conservative Party lawmakers are bitterly divided and have only a few days to agree on a successor or face another leadership election.
However, former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, who lost the last leadership election to Truss, House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, and Boris Johnson, the former prime minister dropped in July over a series of ethics scandals are all possible candidates.
With the stepping down of Truss, whoever replaces her becomes the UK’s third prime minister in a single year. A national election is not required until 2024, but opposition parties have demanded one now, claiming that the government lacks democratic legitimacy.
Following Truss’ resignation, markets breathed a sigh of relief, and the pound rose about 1% to above $1.13.
The dramatic series of events began when Truss and her Treasury chief, Kwasi Kwarteng, unveiled an economic plan that included 45 billion pounds ($50 billion) in unfunded tax cuts, causing the pound to plummet in value and increasing the cost of the UK government borrowing.
The Bank of England was forced to intervene in order to prevent the crisis from spreading and putting pension funds at risk.
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The upheaval, combined with an increasing number of lawmakers calling for her resignation, resulted in the replacement of Truss’ Treasury chief, multiple policy U-turns, and a breakdown in the governing Conservative Party’s discipline.
She resigned following a meeting with Graham Brady, a senior Conservative lawmaker in charge of leadership challenges. Brady was tasked with determining whether the prime minister still has the support of Tory MPs.
