London, Oct 20 (BBC/GNA) – Liz Truss has announced her resignation as prime minister after being in office for just 45 days – the shortest tenure of any UK prime minister.
Speaking outside Downing Street, she says she has told King Charles she is resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.
In front of dozens of reporters she said she came into office at a time of “great economic and international instability”.
The country had been held back by low economic growth for too long, she says, and she was elected by her party with a “mandate to change this”.
She said her government delivered on energy bills and cutting national insurance, and had set out a vision for a “low tax high growth economy”.
She added: “I recognise… given the situation I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.”
The second shortest serving PM was George Canning, who served for 119 days before he died in office in 1827.
Trouble began when Truss’ first Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, spooked the financial markets with his mini-budget on 23 September.
Since then, Conservative disquiet has morphed into widespread anger within the parliamentary party.
Her stepping down today 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.
The pound rallied as financial markets reacted to the announcement that Prime Minister Liz Truss is stepping down after just six weeks in the job.
Sterling shot up to 1.13 US dollars before she made her speech as markets anticipated that Truss would go.
But it’s since fallen back slightly. It was trading around 0.4% higher at 1.126 US dollars about 30 minutes after her statement.
GNA/ Credit BBC