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March 29, 2024

Division and turmoil: UK PM Liz Truss resigns after six weeks

British Prime Minister Liz Truss has called it quits after instability roiled the financial markets and rebellion rippled through the ranks of the Conservative Party. The Labour Party now has a large and growing lead, according to opinion polls. 

  • By Jill Lawless Associated Press

October 20, 2022|LONDON

British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned Thursday – bowing to the inevitable after a tumultuous six-week term in which her policies triggered turmoil in financial markets and a rebellion in her party obliterated her authority.

She said: “I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected.”

Just a day earlier Ms. Truss had vowed to stay in power, saying she was “a fighter and not a quitter.” But Ms. Truss couldn’t hold on any longer after a senior minister quit her government with a barrage of criticism and a vote in the House of Commons descended into chaos and acrimony just days after she was forced to abandon many of her economic policies.

Her departure leaves a divided Conservative Party seeking a leader who can unify its warring factions.

A growing number of lawmakers had called for Ms. Truss to resign after weeks of turmoil sparked by her economic plan. The plan unveiled by the government last month triggered financial turmoil and a political crisis that has seen the replacement of Ms. Truss’ Treasury chief, multiple policy U-turns, and a breakdown of discipline in the governing Conservative Party.

Earlier, Conservative lawmaker Simon Hoare said the government was in disarray.

“Nobody has a route plan. It’s all sort of hand-to-hand fighting on a day-to-day basis,” he told the BBC on Thursday. He said Ms. Truss had “about 12 hours” to turn the situation around.

Ms. Truss had held a hastily arranged meeting in her 10 Downing Street office with Graham Brady, a senior Conservative lawmaker who oversees leadership challenges. Mr. Brady was tasked with assessing whether the prime minister still has the support of Tory members of Parliament – and it seemed she did not. ReadMore

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