Dedaandsons global News Portal

Story: UK politics ; 20-10-2022;

Liz Truss to resign as UK prime minister, she served only 45 days in office.

• Next UK Prime Minister to take charge of the office till October 28, Tory committee Chairperson.

Brief About Liz Truss:

Liz Truss became the shortest serving Prime Minister in British history, as she resigned after serving just 6 weeks as UK's PM.

She also resigned as leader of the Conservative Party with immediate effect.

Truss has been Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk since 2010, and had held various cabinet positions within the tenure of different prime ministers. She recently served as foreign secretary from 2021 to 2022, under then PM Boris Johnson.

Liz said in regards to her resignation:

Speaking in Downing Street, Truss said she would stay on as prime minister until a successor is chosen.

"We've agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week," she said.

"I will remain as prime minister until a successor has been chosen."

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."

Next UK's Prime Minister after Liz Truss?:

The political turmoil in the UK is not ending anytime soon, first Boris Johnson's resignation and now the shortest serving PM in the history of Britain, Liz Truss. The question arises here who would be next PM after.

Here are three names to watch out for:

Though the next election process would finalize the new PM after Truss, but the top contenders are here:

Will Rishi Sunak become UK PM in 2022? Former chancellor Rishi Sunak has emerged as the favourite to become the UK’s next prime minister, according to bookmakers.

Former prime minister Boris Johnson surprisingly is in the race as well, according to conservatives he remains one of the popular face for the position.

Penny Mordaunt (Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council since September 2022) the third most likely candidate to become the next prime minister.

Why did Liz Truss resigned?:

Her bad financial policies were the main reason for her as resignation as PM of UK.

• Truss tried to provide relief to the common man from high energy prices (due to the Russia-Ukraine war, mainly), and announced major tax cuts to parliament, this move left the country's currency plummeted in value, while the costs of government borrowing went up.

This led to criticism of her policy making and soon due to mounting pressure she was forced to take back the policy plans.

She sacked her friend and political ally Kwasi Kwarteng (finance minister), from his office, served just 38 days at the office.

Replacing Kwarteng with a former political rival, Jeremy Hunt, as finance minister.

Hunt being a foe challenged the economic program of Truss, soon opponent MPs and some Conservative party members started voicing for her to resignation.

Another mentionable reason behind her fall is the resignation of interior minister Suella Braverman, due to her row with Truss and Jeremy Hunt, over immigration, and due to her sending a sensitive document from a personal email account.

In her resignation letter, she expressed concern about "the direction of the government," and seemed to accuse Truss' actions in recent weeks of not constituting "serious politics."

Braverman was replaced by another Conservative whom Truss had pushed out of her cabinet just six weeks earlier when she took office.

Finally, after a long struggle to maintain power, she fell to pressure and confirmed she would be resigning her position.

Her resignation was “a step that needed to happen for the UK government to move further along the path towards restoring credibility in the eyes of the financial markets”, said Paul Dales, chief UK economist at Capital Economics.

Move Back to Top