UK Prime Minister Liz Truss resigns
By AFP
British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Thursday, October 20 announced her resignation as Conservative Party leader after just six weeks in power and said her successor would be elected by the end of next week.
“I recognise that 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,” Truss said.
A leadership election for MPs to select her successor will be “completed within the next week,” she added.
Labour leader Keir Starmer, whose opposition party has surged in opinion polls on the back of Truss’s short, crisis-plagued tenure, demanded a general election “now”.
The end for Truss came after a key minister resigned and many Tory MPs rebelled over an important vote in chaotic scenes at the House of Commons late Wednesday.
By Thursday morning, more than a dozen Conservative MPs had publicly urged Truss to resign, after her tax-cutting plans caused a market meltdown during an already severe cost-of-living crisis.
Many more were reported to have submitted letters to Brady calling for her to be removed, although party rules would have forbidden another leadership campaign for 12 months.
“The prime minister acknowledges yesterday was a difficult day and she recognises the public wanted to see the government focusing less on politics and more on delivering their priorities,” her official spokesman told reporters. Barely two hours later, she quit.
Events reached a head after what right-wing tabloid The Sun called “a day of extraordinary mayhem” on Wednesday.
Interior minister Suella Braverman left, apparently at Truss’s demand after she sent a government document in a personal email.
But Braverman, an arch right-winger who enjoys strong support among the Tory membership, used her resignation message to attack Truss in blistering terms. Read more here.
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