London
CNN
—
Liz Truss will become Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, after announcing her intention give up just six weeks after a disastrous period that launched Britain deeply into the political and economic turmoil.
Truss said Thursday that she would step aside to have a new leader elected next week, after a growing number of lawmakers from her own Conservative Party said they could no longer support her.
The ad brings to an ignominious end a catastrophic tenure in Downing Street, which seemed doomed since Truss’s flagship economic docket sent markets into a panic and sent the value of the pound tumbling.
truss had tried to save his position replacing his chancellor and longtime ally Kwasi Kwarteng with Jeremy Hunt, a staunch supporter of Rishi Sunak, who was Truss’s biggest rival in the lead race over the summer.
In the end, even that was not enough.
On Wednesday, Truss lost another top official when Secretary of the Interior Suella Braverman he abruptly resigned within weeks of starting his job, using his resignation letter to launch a searing attack on the prime minister’s leadership.
“The business of government depends on people accepting responsibility for their mistakes. Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, acting like no one can see we’ve made them, and hoping things will magically work out for the best is not serious politics,” Braverman wrote in a critique of Truss’s many U-turns on the matter. of taxes. and public spending.
Truss announced her decision to leave just 45 days into her term. George Canning previously held the record for the shortest Downing Street term, having served for 119 days until his death in 1827.
His decision ensures a new power struggle within the ruling Conservative Party, which has hemorrhaged public support over the past year and has now ousted Boris Johnson and Truss in a few months.
Earlier this year, Truss’s predecessor, Johnson, narrowly survived a vote of confidence in his leadership. But he resigned weeks later when dozens of ministers and members of the government resigned, citing a lack of confidence in his government.
Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labor Party, which enjoys a huge lead in opinion polls, repeated his calls for a snap general election on Thursday.
“Britain cannot afford the chaos of the Tories,” he said. wrote On twitter. “My Labor government will provide the necessary stability and leadership. For our economy. For growth. For working people. General elections, now.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also called for an early vote.
“The interests of the Tory party should be of no concern to anyone at this time. A General Election is now a democratic imperative”, Sturgeon said On twitter.
The next general election is due to take place no later than January 2025, but the prospect of Britain seeing its third prime minister since the last election in 2019 would increase pressure on Truss’s successor to ask the public for a new mandate.
This is a breaking story. Will be updated…
