Liz Truss Resigns as British Prime Minister after 45 Days in Office

• BBC reported that the second shortest-serving United Kingdom PM was George Canning, who served for 119 days after dying in 1827
• Trouble began when Liz Truss's first Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, spooked the financial markets with his mini-budget on September 23
• Li Truss's stepping down on Thursday, October 20, follows dramatic scenes in the House of Commons over a vote on fracking

Liz Truss has officially resigned as British Prime Minister after being in office for 45 days.

This is the shortest tenure of any UK prime minister.

BBC reported that the second shortest-serving PM was George Canning, who served for 119 days after dying in 1827.

Events leading to Liz Truss's resignation

Trouble began when Truss's first Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, spooked the financial markets with his mini-budget on September 23.

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Since then, Conservative disquiet has morphed into widespread anger within the parliamentary party.

Her stepping down on Thursday, October 20, follows dramatic scenes in the House of Commons last night over a vote on fracking.

Calls for her to go kept growing in the hours afterwards. But during her address outside Downing Street, Truss argued that she came into office at a time of "great economic and international instability".

Key issues at hand

While announcing her resignation, Truss said she could not deliver the mandate on which she was elected as Tory leader and had notified the King that she was resigning.

She says her government delivered on energy bills and cutting national insurance and had a vision for a "low tax high growth economy".

"I recognise... given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party," she explained.

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Truss's premiership has been in turmoil since her mini-budget last month, which rocked markets and was later scrapped by her new chancellor.

The resignation of her home secretary on Wednesday and a chaotic vote in the Commons sealed her fate.

Calls for a General Election

Following her resignation, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has demanded a General Election "now".

On Tuesday, October 18, Truss appeared to battle to stabilise her position after an economic crash forced her into humiliating U-turns on tax reforms, putting her future as a leader in doubt.

"It's hard to conceive of a more serious political and economic crisis in recent times than that which Britain now faces," right-wing broadsheet The Daily Telegraph wrote in an editorial.

The paper, which previously supported Truss, wrote that she faced "the ignominy" of becoming the country's second shortest-serving prime minister in history unless her MPs gave her "breathing space".

Source: TUKO.co.ke