Liz Truss has resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, barely over six weeks after taking leadership at 10 Downing Street.
The BBC reports that “She said she could not deliver the mandate on which she was elected as Tory leader and had notified the King that she was resigning.”
Truss will remain as Prime Minister while the Conservative “Tory” Party holds a short leadership contest, which is expected to last a week. Many of the names who ran against her in the previous leadership race this summer are expected to run again this time.
What went wrong, and why did Truss last so short a time in office?
“She came in as leader of a divided party with the support of just one-third of MPs,” writes Katy Balls at the Spectator. “But the point when things truly spiralled came after the not-so-mini-Budget in which unfunded tax cuts spooked the markets and landed badly with the public. Since then, Truss has lived in a world of the least-worst options.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has opined that “The Conservative Party has shown it no longer has a mandate to govern” and is calling for an immediate general election.
More on this situation as it develops.
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