Liz Truss resignation: Why was the British PM’s tenure so short, and what happens next?
Global News
The disarray surrounding Lizz Truss's economic plan weakened her authority as prime minister, and ultimately led to her decision to resign on Thursday. What happens next?
British Prime Minister Liz Truss took office last month with hopes and promises of reinvigorating the British economy and putting it on the path to long-term success.
It didn’t go to plan.
Instead, Truss’ tenure was scarred by turmoil as her economic policies threatened the country’s financial stability, driving the pound to record lows, sparking chaos on bond markets and increasing mortgage costs for millions of people.
Though Truss took office amid a cost-of-living crisis, the war in Ukraine and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, her decision to announce 105 billion pounds ($116 billion) of tax cuts and spending increases without providing details on how she would pay for it unnerved investors, who warned of soaring public debt.
That undermined confidence in the government’s ability to pay its bills and raised questions about the economic credentials of a new prime minister who took office after a deeply divisive contest for leadership of the governing Conservative Party.
The disarray surrounding the economic plan weakened Truss’s authority as prime minister, and ultimately led to her decision to resign on Thursday.
The party says it will select a new leader and prime minister by Oct. 28. Truss will remain prime minister until then.
To avoid the need for a lengthy election campaign that could have left the country without an effective government for weeks, party leaders decided that lawmakers would have greater say in the choice and without weeks of hustings around the country.