British Prime Minister Liz Truss Announces Resignation

Liz Truss meets with Queen Elizabeth to accept her appointment as Prime Minister at Balmoral Castle on September 5th (Image courtesy of the Royal Family).

After a short but tumultuous month and a half, Truss announced in a speech on Thursday that she will be resigning as Britain’s Prime Minister.

Article by Tommy Lynch, White House Reporter

LONDON - Last Thursday, British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced that she will step down from her position after announcing that she would not resign the previous day.

Truss assumed office on September 5, 2022, making her the shortest serving Prime Minister in British history. Truss assumed office after conservative Boris Johnson resigned. In her short lived time as Prime Minister, she was heavily criticized for not living up to her promises.

“I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability,” said Truss in her resignation speech. “Given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.”

In order to combat the economic turmoil in Britain, Truss instated tax cuts for the wealthy in the hopes that it would boost the economy. Labeled “Trussonomics,” the plan was similar to Ronald Reagan’s “Trickle-down economics,” and received heavy criticism. By the end of her first month in office, the pound had fallen from 1.1566 USD to as low as 1.0726 USD. Three weeks after announcing the tax cuts, Truss apologized for the mistakes she made in her intense policy action and dismissed Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng on account of the negative reaction to the economic policies. Kwarteng’s replacement, Jeremy Hunt, quickly reversed all of Truss’ actions, calming the volatile markets. Today, the pound is back up to 1.1256 USD, an improvement from late September, but still concerningly low.

This was not the only turmoil coming from inside 10 Downing Street. Last Wednesday, Home Secretary Suella Braverman was dismissed due to a security breach wherein she sent a government document via her personal email. In Braverman’s resignation letter, she took the opportunity to attack Truss’ leadership.

“Not only have we broken key pledges that were promised to our voters,” said Braverman, “but I have had serious concerns about this Government's commitment to honouring manifesto commitments, such as reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration.”

Nominations for a new leader will close on Monday, and a new Prime Minister is expected to be in place by October 28.