British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her shock resignation Thursday after six turbulent weeks in office, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history, and raising new questions about her country’s role as a beacon of stability in the West.
There is broad consensus that this is one of the most chaotic days in British politics in modern history. Britons were shocked with the speed of the new government’s unraveling. It marked a humbling, humiliating moment for a party that has been in power for 12 years.
Truss said a new prime minister will be selected by her Conservative Party lawmakers in the coming week — but how? And who? And why?
The Tory party is bitterly divided by warring centrist and right-wing factions and there is no clear consensus candidate to take over. In the post Boris Johnson era, the country is now adrift about the way forward for Brexit and Britain’s relation to Europe, for the economy, for immigration, for Northern Ireland, for climate change and for Ukraine.
Truss, the country’s third female prime minister, was unable to save her embattled premiership even though she ditched her entire economic plan and replaced two key Cabinet posts over the past week.
I cannot deliver the mandate for which I have been elected by the Conservative Party. I spoke to the king and notified him that I was resigning,” she said in front of her residence at Downing Street.
