Prime Minister Liz Truss resigns

Liz Truss has resigned and will become the shortest-serving Prime Minister in British history when a successor is chosen in the next few days.

A leadership election will now begin and be “completed within the next week”, with Truss remaining in office until the end of that campaign.

Truss, is a very brief 204-word statement outside 10 Downing Street this lunchtime, said: “We set out a vision for a low tax, high growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit.

“I recognise, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.”

It is expected that Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt will feature in the leadership election, with Ben Wallace and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson also likely to be talked about as options.

The next leader will become the fifth-consecutive Conservative Prime Minister but will inherit a huge range of challenges, including the cost of living crisis, the war in Ukraine, the impact of Brexit, and a divided and exhausted party.

There is a statement planned for October 31 by Jeremy Hunt that was to set out a medium-term fiscal plan and release forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility that had been brought forward in an attempt to calm the markets. Longer-term the new leader will also have an eye on the next general election, which must be held by January 2025.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for a general election to be held now and said “the British public deserve a proper say on the country’s future”.

Truss took office on September 6 after a long Conservative Party leadership campaign over the summer, but has been under pressure since her then-Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng delivered his mini-Budget on September 23.

The measures announced caused huge financial issues which led to Kwarteng’s sacking last week, and new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt subsequently reversed almost all of the fiscal policy announcements.

Pressure on Truss mounted even further with the shock resignation yesterday of Home Secretary Suella Braverman – only 43 days into her own job – over data leaks and fierce disagreements over immigration policy.