Days after proclaiming in the House of Commons that she is a “fighter, not a quitter,” British Prime Minister (PM) Liz Truss on Thursday announced her resignation, making her the country’s shortest-serving PM, at just 44 days in office.
In her resignation speech, Truss said, “I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” adding that her successor will be chosen via an internal election next week.
In full: Prime Minister @TrussLiz’s resignation statement. pic.twitter.com/UXTWBRyfLr
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) October 20, 2022
Calls for Truss to resign grew louder in recent days as 100 Conservative Party Members of Parliament (MPs) called for a no-confidence vote. According to a report by The Independent, the MPs wanted to ask Graham Brady, the leader of the Tories’ backbench, called the 1922 Committee, to conduct the vote and convey to Truss that “her time is up.” They also called for a change in the party rules to allow a no-confidence vote to be held immediately instead of allowing her to hold the position for the one-year grace period.
Her position became particularly untenable last week, when she dismissed former Chancellor of Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng just days after he was appointed. Both Kwarteng and Truss faced widespread criticism from the opposition and party members over their “mini-budget” plan to introduce tax cuts for the country’s wealthiest citizens. Furthermore, inflation has hit a 40-year-high of 10.1%, while the mini-budget plan caused the pound to plummet to $1.04, the lowest level since 1971.
As a matter of fact, the mini-budget made mortgages more expensive for millions of homeowners. But the more important thing is the shift in feeling that the Tories aren’t being buffeted by macro/global trends but in some way have ownership of them. That’s difficult to shake.
— Oliver Barnes (@mroliverbarnes) October 21, 2022
After Kwarteng’s dismissal, Truss vowed to increase the corporate tax to 25% instead of keeping it at 19% and revised her plan to substantially increase government spending. She admitted then that her term has been “difficult.” However, she vowed to complete her “mission” of achieving economic growth.
She replaced Kwarteng with Jeremy Hunt, who initially opposed calls for Truss’s resignation, arguing that voters would be disgruntled by the constant political instability caused by frequent leadership changes. He also praised Truss for changing her approach in the face of criticism, saying she went beyond “policy and personnel.”
Soon after his appointment, however, Hunt suggested that Truss should be replaced with a team of Tory leaders that includes Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, and himself. Hunt said Kwarteng and Truss’ mini-budget was a “mistake,” noting that it went “too far, too fast” and rewarded the country’s wealthiest citizens.
Sir Ed Davey tells @LBC that after 44 days in office Liz Truss should not be entitled to the £115,000 annual allowance usually afforded former Prime Ministers.
— Theo Usherwood (@theousherwood) October 21, 2022
"Most people have to work 35 years to get a full state pension."
Adding to Truss’s woes, Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Wednesday tendered her resignation, criticising the incumbent government for breaking “key pledges” such as cracking down on illegal migration, particularly the unlawful boat crossings across the English Channel.
In a sharply-worded resignation letter, Braverman raised concern about “the direction of [the] government” during these “tumultuous times.” She noted that even in her short stint as Home Secretary, she had recognised that there is still “much to do” on immigration policy. Braverman noted that the government’s failure to enact change in this regard is disingenuous to citizens who voted in “unambiguous numbers” for a manifesto that is centred around “reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration.”
To this end, she stressed that the United Kingdom (UK) needs a “deserving policy” that prioritises the “public good” and ignores “the interests of selfish protestors.”
With only 43 days in office, Braverman was the shortest-serving home secretary since Arthur Wellesely in 1834. She was replaced by Grant Shapps, a veteran Conservative Party minister and former party chair, who had previously served as Transport Secretary under former PM Boris Johnson’s leadership and is a more centrist alternative to the anti-immigration Braverman. Like Hunt, Shapps, too, questioned how long Truss could remain PM, likening her challenge to stay in power to “threading the eye of a needle with the lights off.”
The debacle of Liz Truss’ short-lived premiership is a symptom of a broken economic system and a trashed democracy.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) October 20, 2022
We will continue to lurch from crisis to crisis — and ordinary people will pay the price — until we finally build a society for the many, not the few.
While announcing her resignation on Thursday, Truss revealed that had she spoken with Brady, Deputy PM Thérèse Coffey, and Conservative Party Chairman Jake Berry, who jointly told her she did not enjoy the support of her own MPs. Brady stated that the next PM would be elected by 28 October.
Nominations will close on Monday at 2 PM, with candidates needing the support of at least 100 fellow Conservative party MPs. If only one candidate manages to do so by that time, they will become the leader that same day. If three or more candidates are in the running, Tory MPs will have to whittle the competition down to two final candidates, following which the party’s 180,000 grassroots members join in to vote.
Boris Johnson is already the front runner among Conservative MPs, and has a massive advantage with Conservative Party members. The Tory wets campaign to oust Liz Truss has backfired badly. They will soon need to get used to the idea of another @BorisJohnson premiership.
— Nile Gardiner (@NileGardiner) October 21, 2022
The front-runners to replace Truss are ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak, former PM Boris Johnson, former Home Secretary Braverman, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, and Leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt.
A poll by YouGov found this week that 55% of Conservative Party members would vote for Rishi Sunak, who lost the most-recent party leadership election to Truss. Although this appears to be an endorsement of Sunak, 63% in fact said they would prefer Boris Johnson, the man whom Truss originally replaced, if he were to run. The poll showed that if Johnson were in the running, just 23% would vote for Sunak.
I back @RishiSunak to be our next PM. He has the plan & credibility to:
— Dominic Raab (@DominicRaab) October 20, 2022
🔹restore financial stability, help get inflation down & deliver sustainable tax cuts over time; and
🔹unite the Conservatives by bringing the best talent into govt to deliver for the British people.
Johnson, who is flying back from a holiday in the Caribbean, has reportedly been calling on the Tories to back him as the PM in order to win the next general election in 2025. He is also alleged to have reached out to Sunak “to get back together.”
However, Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for early elections, saying, “After 12 years of Tory failure, the British people deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos,” adding, “The British public deserve a proper say on the country’s future.”
Boris Johnson failed the country with lies and lawbreaking.
— Helen Morgan MP 🔶 (@HelenMorganMP) October 21, 2022
Liz Truss trashed the economy.
The Conservatives have shown they are not fit to govern.@EdwardJDavey is absolutely right, we need a #GeneralElectionNow#GeneralElection2022pic.twitter.com/c955sZxOcm
Similarly, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey asked the Conservative MPs to “do their patriotic duty, put the country first and give the people a say.” Likewise, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon asserted, “The interests of the Tory party should concern no-one right now. A general election is now a democratic imperative.”