Liz Truss announces resignation as UK prime minister

British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Thursday dramatically announced her resignation just six weeks after taking office.

Truss bowed to the inevitable after her right-wing platform of tax cuts disintegrated and as many MPs among the ruling Conservatives revolted.

Speaking in Downing Street, Truss said she would stay on as prime minister until a successor is chosen to serve as Tory leader.

“We’ve agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week,” she said, after senior backbench MP Graham Brady told her the game was up.

“This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plan and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security.

“I will remain as prime minister until a successor has been chosen.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer, whose opposition party has surged in opinion polls on the back of Truss’s short, crisis-plagued tenure, demanded a General election “now”.

The end for Truss came after a key minister resigned and many Tory MPs rebelled over an important vote in chaotic scenes at the House of Commons late Wednesday.

By Thursday morning, more than a dozen Conservative MPs had publicly urged Truss to resign, after her tax-cutting plans caused a market meltdown during an already severe cost-of-living crisis.

Many more were reported to have submitted letters to Brady calling for her to be removed, although party rules would have forbidden another leadership campaign for 12 months. AFP.com, 20 Oct, 2022