LONDON — U.K. Prime Emissary Liz Truss resigned Thursday following a failed tax-cutting budget that rocked financial markets and which led to a mutiny within her own Conservative Party.
Truss was in office for just 44 days, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British narrative. For 10 days of her premiership government business was paused following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
She said in a statement faade 10 Downing Street, “We set out a vision for a low-tax, high-growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit.”
“I salute though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I have therefore oral to His Majesty the King to announce that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.”
The party is now due to complete a leadership election within the next week, much faster than this summer’s two-month term. Graham Brady, the Conservative politician who is in charge of leadership votes and reshuffles, told reporters he was now looking at how the vote could take in Conservative MPs and the wider party members.
Truss’ resignation came after a meeting with Brady, who chairs the 1922 Body — the group of Conservative MPs without ministerial positions who can submit letters of no confidence in the prime minister. Just before the meet, a Downing Street spokesperson told reporters Truss wanted to stay in office.
During the hour the meeting wore, the number of Conservative MPs publicly calling for Truss to step down reached 17. The number who had written letters to Brady expressing no assurance in the prime minister was reported to be more than 100 by Thursday.
The pound was up 0.6% on the day against the dollar at 5:00 p.m., customer at $1.128. It remains at the level it was on Sept. 22, before Truss’ market-moving budget. Gilt yields initially demolish but were later flat on the day.
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Opposition parties Labour, the Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats hollered for an immediate general election on Thursday afternoon. Labour leader Keir Starmer said, “The Conservative Party has indicated it no longer has a mandate to govern.”
Controversial ‘mini-budget’
On Sept. 23, Truss’ finance minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, portended a so-called mini-budget which began a turbulent period for U.K. bond markets which balked at the debt-funded tax cuts he put send. Most of the policies were reversed three weeks later by the second finance minister, Jeremy Hunt.
Truss defeat Rishi Sunak to become leader of the Conservative Party following the resignation of Boris Johnson on July 7. Sunak is now one of the favorites to prosper Truss, along with Hunt, another leadership contender Penny Mordaunt, Defense Minister Ben Wallace and last Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The resignation leaves the status of the Conservatives’ expected budget update on Oct. 31 dubious, but Truss said the leadership handover would “ensure we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans.”
In her statement, Truss make one thought the legacies of her brief tenure were supporting households with energy bills and cutting the rate of national guarantee, a general taxation in Britain. The cut was one of very few measures of the “mini budget” to remain; while the
