PRIME MINISTER LIZ TRUST FINALLY FALLS ON HER SWORD

By Bill Heaney

Prime Minister Liz Truss has resigned as UK prime minister in a statement outside Downing Street.

Watched on television by millions of people across the world, she said she could not deliver the mandate on which she was elected as Tory leader and had notified King Charles III that she was resigning.

There will be a Conservative leadership election to be completed within the next week, she said

“I will remain as Prime Minister until a successor has been chosen,” she said, speaking from a hastily brought out podium at the front door of 10 Downing Street.

Her departure after 45 days in office makes her the shortest-serving PM in UK history.

Truss’s premiership as been in turmoil since her mini-budget last month, which rocked markets and was later scrapped by her new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.

The resignation of her home secretary, Suella Braverman,  on Wednesday and a chaotic vote in the House of Commons sealed her fate.

Asked by Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer during a febrile debate in the House of Commons yesterday when she would be quitting, Liz Trust told parliament: “I am a fighter, not a quitter.”

Meanwhile, Sky News is reporting that in a statement read outside Downing Street, Ms Truss said: “I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability.

“Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills.”

She said she was elected “with a mandate to change this”, adding: “We delivered on energy bills.”

” I recognise, though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” she said.

“I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.

“This morning, I met the chairman of the 1922 committee, Sir Graham Brady. We’ve agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week.”

Ms Truss will remain as PM until her successor has been chosen.

There has been much speculation about who could replace Ms Truss, with new chancellor Jeremy Hunt one of the main names being suggested.

However, Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates said he has been told Mr Hunt will not stand.

The Leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, left, is one of the front-runners to succeed her and to lead the Tory Party into the next General Election in two years’ time.

Ms Truss’ downfall started when her former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced his mini-budget a month ago, which prompted weeks of economic turmoil and eventually led to him being sacked last Friday.

Mr Hunt, who voted for Rishi Sunak during the leadership campaign, then took over as chancellor and U-turned on the majority of the unfunded mini-budget tax cuts on Monday – further undercutting Ms Truss’ authority.

On Wednesday afternoon, her home secretary, Suella Braverman then quit after saying she had breached security rules by sending a policy message to a colleague over her personal email by mistake.

And saying that her dream was that she would see a front page picture in The Daily Telegraph of unwanted immigrants being flown out to Rwanda, a policy formed but never implemented under Boris Johnston, who is being tipped in some quarters to return to Downing Street as the new PM.

It only got worse for Liz Truss on Wednesday evening after confusion over whether Labour’s opposition day vote on fracking was actually a confidence vote in the government or not – which resulted in allegations of “manhandling” of Tory MPs by colleagues.

Some Tory MPs had publicly called for Ms Truss’ resignation before that but in the hours before she quit, a flurry of Tory MPs revealed they wanted her to go.

Conservative Party rules prevent a leader from a confidence vote in the first 12 months of their tenure but it is understood after a significant number of MPs wrote to Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, calling for her to go, a decision was made that she could not stay.