British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned Thursday, just six weeks after taking office, after the Conservative party lost confidence in her leadership.
The turbulent 44-day tenure included multiple crises, most importantly a financial and economic crisis that included an emergency central bank intervention, the firing of her treasury chief, and multiple U-turns. Truss also faced an energy crisis from the war in Ukraine.
“I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected,” she said in a speech on Thursday.
LIZ TRUSS QUITS: BRITISH PRIME MINISTER RESIGNS JUST SIX WEEKS AFTER TAKING OVER AS LEADER
FINANCIAL CRISIS:
Truss’s financial crisis was predicted by former Treasury Chief Rishi Sunak, who ran against Truss in the prime minister elections last month after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned. During the race, Sunak warned that some of Truss’s ideas would hurt the economy because it was a “fairytale.”
“We cannot make it worse, inflation is the enemy that makes everybody poorer,” Sunak said during the debate. “We have to be honest. Borrowing your way out of inflation isn’t a plan — it’s a fairytale.”
Despite Sunak’s warning, Truss kept her word and unveiled a “mini-budget,” that included $50 billion in tax cuts without a proposition of how the government would pay for it. Because of the financial uncertainty, the pound plunged to a record low against the U.S. dollar and government borrowing soared. Inflation also ran at 10%, triggering interest rates to rise faster than expected, according to the central bank. The Bank of England was forced to purchase government bonds.
Truss also promised to cut the rise in corporate tax that Johnson’s administration scheduled. The tax would see a 19% to 25% increase under Johnson. However, after receiving backlash from the party, Truss allowed Johnson’s tax increase to stand.
PARTY MUTINY:
Truss was unpopular among U.K. residents leading up to the election, but that sentiment only increased after she announced plans to scrap an increase in corporate tax. She also became increasingly unpopular among her fellow lawmakers after the market and financial crisis.
She won support from Conservative members by promising low-tax policies but switched tactics within weeks of coming to power. In a shocking pivot, Truss began recalling some of the ideas outlined in her budget in an attempt to ease some of the backlash she received from lawmakers. However, as tension continued to rise, Truss eventually fired former Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng, the treasury chief who was a longtime friend of hers. He was replaced with former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Hunt insisted that Truss was listening to his advice on Sunday, which had included plans to scrap the rest of her economic agenda had her tenure continued.
“She’s listened. She’s changed. She’s been willing to do that most difficult thing in politics, which is to change tack,” Hunt told the BBC.
WHAT’S NEXT:
During her resignation Thursday morning, Truss said there would be a new election within the Conservative Party to elect the country’s third prime minister since the last general election two years ago. The new election is expected to fall within the next week and will be overseen by Graham Brady, the chairman of the committee of Conservative lawmakers. Details on how the process will unfurl have not been revealed.
Typically, prime minister elections take a few months, after the conservative members of parliament choose two candidates to face off in a nationwide conservative election. However, Brady said the new leader will be in place by Oct. 28.
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Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer pushed for a general election to be held soon, rather than waiting until 2025.
“The Conservative Party has shown it no longer has the mandate to govern. After 12 years of Tory failure, the British people deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos,” Starmer said. “The Tories cannot respond to their latest shambles by yet again simply clicking their fingers and shuffling the people at the top without the consent of the British people.”
