British prime minister resigns after just 44 days

At a press conference that lasted no more than a couple of minutes, she told reporters she had tendered her resignation as leader of the ruling Conservative Party to King Charles III. Since the leader of the majority party is automatically Prime Minister, there must now be an election within the Conservatives for a new PM.

Truss said she had discussed the matter on Thursday morning with Charles Brady, leader of the 1922 Committee, the most powerful grouping of Conservative deputies, and they had decided that a new PM must be elected within a week.

This tears up the Conservative Party rule book, which envisages a lengthy election campaign, first among the deputies and then among the party as a whole, which would take months. An election lasting no more than a week will clearly be restricted only to deputies.

Truss came to power after her predecessor Boris Johnson was forced to resign after a wave of scandals. She boasted that she would embark on a programme of high growth and low taxation, but failed to win support for this programme even among fellow conservatives, let alone wider British society.

Her Finance Minister, Kwesi Kwarteng, pushed through a “mini-budget” in early September which was widely derided for redistributing wealth from the poor to the already rich. Even the IMF criticized this budget for its regressive tax measures.

Truss was forced to sack the finance minister, and his replacement, Jeremy Hunt, quickly reversed almost all the measures in the mini-budget.

The leader of the opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, in a parliamentary debate on Wednesday, told Truss she had to go. “I am a fighter, not a quitter”, she retorted.

But less than 24 hours later, she has indeed gone. Her 44 day period in office is the shortest of any Prime Minister in recent British history.

The crisis is far from over. Opinion polls show that most British voters want an early general election. They do not want Conservative deputies alone to choose the next PM.

If a general election were to be held now, the Labour Party would be swept to power with a huge majority of parliamentary seats.
(AIM)