LONDON –
British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned on Thursday, bowing to the inevitable after a tumultuous six-week term in office in which her policies sent turmoil through financial markets and a rebellion in her party destroyed her authority.
She said: “I cannot fulfill the mandate for which I was elected.”
Just a day earlier, Truss had vowed to stay in power, saying she was “a fighter and not a quitter.” But Truss couldn’t take it anymore after a senior minister resigned from her government to a barrage of criticism and a House of Commons vote turned into chaos and acrimony just days after she was forced to leave many of their economic policies.
His departure leaves a divided Conservative Party searching for a leader who can unify its warring factions.
A growing number of lawmakers had called for Truss to resign after weeks of confusion over his economic plan. The plan unveiled by the government last month triggered financial turmoil and a political crisis that has seen the replacement of Truss’s treasury chief, multiple policy changes and a breakdown of discipline in the ruling Conservative Party.
Earlier, Conservative lawmaker Simon Hoare said the government was in disarray.
“Nobody has a route plan. It’s kind of a hand-to-hand fight on a day-to-day basis,” he told the BBC on Thursday. He said Truss had “about 12 hours” to turn things around.
Truss had held a hastily arranged meeting in her office at 10 Downing Street with Graham Brady, a senior Conservative lawmaker who oversees leadership challenges. Brady was tasked with assessing whether the Prime Minister still has the support of Conservative Members of Parliament, and it appears she did not.
A growing number of Conservative members of Parliament had called on Thursday for him to resign and end the chaos.
“It’s time for the prime minister to go,” said lawmaker Miriam Cates. Another, Steve Double, said of Truss, “Sadly, she’s not cut out for the job.” Lawmaker Ruth Edwards said she “is not responsible for the party allowing her to stay in power.”
Lawmakers’ anger grew after Wednesday night’s vote on fracking for shale gas, a practice Truss wants to resume despite opposition from many Conservatives, produced chaotic scenes in Parliament.
With the Conservatives holding a large parliamentary majority, an opposition call to ban fracking was easily defeated. But there were signs of anger in the House of Commons, with party whips accused of using heavy-handed tactics to win votes.
Chris Bryant, a lawmaker from the opposition Labor Party, said he “saw members physically abused … and harassed.” Conservative officials denied there was any mistreatment.
Rumors circulated that Conservative boss Wendy Morton, who is responsible for party discipline, and her deputy had resigned. Hours later, Truss’s office said both remained at their jobs.
Newspapers that tend to support the Conservatives were scathing. An editorial in the Daily Mail was headlined: “The wheels have come off the Tory clown’s car.”
International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, sent on the air Thursday morning to defend the government, insisted the administration was providing “stability.” But she could not guarantee that Truss would carry the party to the next election.
“At the moment, I think that’s the case,” he said.
With opinion polls giving Labor a large and growing lead, many Conservatives now believe their only hope of avoiding electoral oblivion is to replace Truss. But they were divided on how to get rid of her and who should replace her.
The party is keen to avoid another divisive leadership contest like the race a few months ago in which Truss defeated former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak. Possible replacements, if Conservative lawmakers can agree, include Sunak, House of Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt and newly appointed Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt.
A national election does not have to be held until 2024.
In a major blow, Home Secretary Suella Braverman resigned on Wednesday after breaking the rules by sending an official document from her personal email account. She used her resignation letter to criticize Truss, saying she had “concerns about the direction of this government.”
“The business of government is about people accepting responsibility for their mistakes,” he said in a thinly veiled jab at Truss.
Braverman was replaced as Home Secretary, the minister responsible for immigration and law and order, by former cabinet minister Grant Shapps, a high-profile supporter of his defeated rival Sunak.
The dramatic developments came days after Truss fired his Treasury chief, Kwasi Kwarteng, on Friday after the economic package they both unveiled on September 23 spooked financial markets and triggered an economic and political crisis.
The plan’s 45 billion pounds ($50 billion) in unfunded tax cuts caused turbulence in financial markets, hitting the value of the pound and raising the cost of UK government borrowing. The Bank of England was forced to intervene to prevent the crisis from spreading to the broader economy and putting pension funds at risk.
On Monday, Kwarteng’s replacement, Hunt, scrapped almost all of Truss’s tax cuts, along with his signature energy policy and promise not to cut government spending. He said the government will need to save billions of pounds and “many tough decisions” need to be made before it sets out a medium-term fiscal plan on October 31.
Speaking to lawmakers for the first time since the U-turn, Truss apologized Wednesday, admitting he had made mistakes during his six weeks in office, but insisting that by changing course he “took responsibility and made the right decisions.” in the interest of the economic stability of the country.
Opposition lawmakers shouted “Resign!” as he spoke in the House of Commons.
Labor Party leader Keir Starmer accused the Conservatives of not having “a basic patriotic duty to keep the British people out of their pathetic quarrels”.
He said that amid a worsening cost of living crisis, “Britain can no longer afford chaos from the Conservatives. We need a general election now.”