Liz Truss Resigns as U.K. Prime Minister After Less Than Two Months
2022.10.20 09:05
Liz Truss Resigns as U.K. Prime Minister After Less Than Two Months
Budrigannews.com – Liz Truss has resigned as Prime Minister of the U.K., less than two months after taking power.
Her departure ends a chaotic chapter which started with the ousting of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister in the summer, and culminated in financial market chaos that quickly forced Truss to abandon both her signature economic policies.
“We set out a vision for a low-tax, high-wage economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit. Truss said in a brief statement outside 10 Downing St. “I recognize, though, given the situation, that I cannot deliver on the mandate.”
Truss said there will be a new leadership contest within a week, and that she will stay on as Prime Minister until that is complete. The BBC reported that Jeremy Hunt – who took over as Chancellor of the Exchequer last Friday after Truss dismissed her friend and political ally Kwasi Kwarteng – will not stand in the leadership contest.
The developments appear to end a brief flirtation with a set of policies that markets had condemned as unsustainable. Kwarteng had announced the biggest tax cuts in 50 years in his first act as Chancellor, without either specifying how they would be paid for, or allowing the Office for Budget Responsibility to vet his figures.
Hunt on Monday reversed almost all of the tax cuts announced by Kwarteng, and said that the energy subsidies announced by Truss will most likely be curtailed already at the end of the coming winter, rather than lasting for two years as initially planned.
As if numbed by the scale of the dysfunction in Westminster, the rose only modestly on the news, gaining 0.5% against the dollar to $1.1268 and 0.2% against the to 1.1488. The index was flat, while the U.K. focused midcap index rose 0.9%.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year government bond, meanwhile, edged up after falling in anticipation of the news during the morning in London.
Truss’s departure sets an unwelcome record. She is the shortest-serving Prime Minister in over 300 years, beating George Canning, who died after only 119 days in office in 1827.
