U.K. Prime Minister ‘Liz Truss’ Resigns After 6 Weeks in Office – Watch Video

Kedean BrownOctober 20, 2022

Image - EPA/Carlos Jasso via The Conversation

After succeeding Borris Johnson as the British prime minister in September and a short-lived six-week stint as PM, Liz Truss has announced her withdrawal from the post amid mounting calls for her resignation.

On Wednesday, Truss told parliamentarians that she was a “fighter, not a quitter” while she was questioned by the members of the house, but the embattled prime minister announced her resignation outside Downing Street on Thursday morning.

“I cannot deliver the mandate for which I have been elected by the Conservative Party. I spoke to the king and notified him that I was resigning,” Truss stated.

The third woman to serve as Britain’s prime minister, Truss has become one of the shortest-serving prime ministers in the nation’s political history. Her vacation from the post comes after a failed economic plan that included a large programme of tax cuts, which she ultimately reversed after it caused severe market volatility, with the pound falling sharply against the dollar and pension funds in danger of collapsing. A total of 17 members of parliament have called for Truss to step down, while the number of those who have written letters expressing no confidence in her leadership has reportedly surpassed 100.

Truss has held the office for 44 days, and under her leadership, the conservative party’s poll ratings have rapidly fallen. Truss will remain as prime minister until her successor has been chosen. Unlike the two-month leadership election that brought her into office, the election for her successor is expected to conclude by October 28.

Amid the country’s recent turbulent leadership, the leader of the U.K.’s Labour Party, Keir Starmer, has called for a general election. “Britain cannot afford the chaos of the Conservatives anymore, we need a general election now,” Starmer stated Thursday morning.

Watch her resignation announcement below.