Dana Malcom

Staff Writer

#UnitedKingdom, October 20, 2022 – Call for UK General Election as Tories Liz Truss resigns as Prime Minister.

“I have spoken to his majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning.”

Another resigning PM for the UK and already the Labour Party is calling for a general election and rejecting another attempt of the Tories to elevate one of their own to take over as UK Prime Minister. 

At 1:30 Thursday afternoon, those words hailed the end of the shortest Prime Ministerial term in UK History as Liz Truss resigned as PM and leader of the Conservative party; she was elected only 45 days ago. 

Truss had taken charge of a fractured party and many of its members voted against her.  Media reports on repeated failures of her economic plans, the sacking of her finance minister, and an ugly public resignation of one of her top ministers, Truss now headlines as the sixth UK Prime Minister in a row to tender their resignation prematurely. 

This means a party election will be called once more, but this one will be different.  This time instead of stretching over a month, the election will take place in a week and only the MPs will have a say.  

In August, when Truss’s predecessor Boris Johnson left the seat in disgrace after a party revolt, Truss and several other candidates went up against each other, lobbying their fellow MPs for votes in a round system.  The final two were Liz Truss and the overwhelming favorite of the conservative party Rishi Sunak.  The decision was then put to the public, where Truss got just over 2000 more votes.

Only 45 days later, and with a 10 percent approval rating from the public, according to polling firm YouGov, she exited 10 Downing Street to say this.

“I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability, families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills— I was elected by the Conservative party to change this.  We delivered on energy bills and on cutting National Insurance, and we set out a vision of a low tax high growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit.”

Unfortunately as she herself admitted, Truss could not make it happen. 

“I recognize, given the situation, that I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” explained Truss. 

Within five weeks of her tenure, she had already been apologizing for ‘mistakes’ in her mini budget filled with tax cuts that created major economic turbulence, sending the pound to shocking lows against the dollar.  At the same time inflation in the UK barreled to 40 year highs once again. 

Then came the replacement of the finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng, who had been by the PMs side and implemented her tax plans with a new candidate Jeremy Hunt, who shredded the plans Truss had been defending for weeks.  Hunt reversed tax cuts left and right and pulled back the two year energy bill cap to six months rather than the twenty-four Truss had promised 

Even as her fellow Tories urged her to give up the spot, her resignation creates a major problem for the party.  With what will be three leaders in a single term, they may have to put a major vote to the people. 

Labor leader Keir Starmer has already called for a general election.  The Conservative party won this term with the greatest margin in decades, whether they can repeat that in a general election is up in the air. 

Liz Truss will remain UK prime minister until her replacement is elected.