UK PM Truss resigns, Tory leadership vote to take place next week

UK Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned on Thursday, caving in to days of pressure as her 44-day-old premiership imploded in a debris field of policy u-turns, sackings and financial market collapses.

After yet another day of unbelievable turmoil that saw hard-right interior minister Suella Braverman sacked and MPs allegedly manhandled in parliament during a manifesto-breaking vote on fracking, Truss decided to step down after meeting with Graham Brady, head of the Conservative party's powerful committee representing backbench lawmakers.

Truss said she had spoken to King Charles and said she was quitting as leader of the Tory party and that a leadership election would now take place. There is now a growing call, not least from the opposition Labour Party, for a general election to be called.

Markets, fed up with the pantomime masquerading as government, barely reacted, with the FTSE 100 and pound both up slightly.

Business groups reacted with fury at the prospect of the third prime minister in three months, with Tony Danker, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry saying the events of recent weeks had "undermined the confidence of people, businesses, markets and global investors in Britain".

"That must now come to an end if we are to avoid yet more harm to households and firms. "Stability is key. The next Prime Minister will need to act to restore confidence from day one."

“They will need to deliver a credible fiscal plan for the medium term as soon as possible, and a plan for the long-term growth of our economy.”

Truss said she had entered office with “a vision for a low-tax, high-growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit”.

"I recognise that, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative party," she said.

"This morning I met the chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady. We’ve agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week. This will ensure that we remain on behalf to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security. I will remain as prime minister until a successor has been chosen."

The state of infighting and chaos surrounding the Truss administration got so ridiculous that one UK newspaper established a live feed of a lettuce to see whether it or the prime minister would last longer - with the vegetable winning comfortably.

Britain's electorate will now once again be forced to witness a Conservative leadership election, although this time it will be restricted to MPs only to avoid dragging the process out by putting the future of the country to around 180,000 party members, of whom nearly 32,000 didn't even bother to cast a vote in the poll that elevated Truss.

Jeremy Hunt, who took over as finance minister from the discredited Kwasi Kwarteng last week, has indicated he does not want to stand.

Kwarteng was sacked by Truss after introducing September’s mini-budget containing £45bn of unfunded tax cuts leading to a crash in the bond market and slump in the pound. However, given she backed the measures, many wondered why she should stay on as well.

The ground under Truss's feet began to crumble on Monday when Hunt shredded nearly all of the tax cuts announced in the mini-budget and scaled back her flagship scheme to cap energy bills, in an attempt to restore stability.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com