UK Prime Minister Liz Truss resigns; who next?

By Dr. Nana Sifa Twum

The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Mary Elizabeth Truss has resigned just after 44 days in office. She assumed office as the 77th Prime Minister and was the third female British Prime Minister after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May. She was also Britain’s fourth Prime Minister in six years.

Just after lunchtime on Thursday (20th October), she addressed the media at Downing Street in less than two minutes indicating her meeting with the King who wields the executive powers, and her bid to resign from office.

Liz Truss succeeded Boris Johnson as prime minister on 6 September after defeating Rishi Sunak in the Conservative Party leadership contest and meeting the Queen at Balmoral. She was the last PM to have received power from the late Queen Elizabeth to form a government and just two days into her leadership the Queen died, causing a national period of mourning.

Her premiership has been one of severe turbulence within the economic and political space. Volatile markets, a baseless economy, and sharp division within her party continue to be the order of the day. She has led a very divided political party while at the same time she is faced with a tough opposition in parliament that calls each passing day for general elections.

She reckoned in her resignation speech; she came into office at a time of great economic and international instability. “Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills. Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine threatens the security of our whole continent. And our country had been held back for too long by low economic growth.”

There has always been intra and inter-party confusion amidst the high level of economic uncertainty. In her first major move as Prime Minister, the government announced its Mini Budget on 23 September 2022 in which former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced sweeping tax cuts without clear funding or a forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility. This led to gilt yields skyrocketing and the pound plummeting to the lowest level against the dollar in history.

The shortest-serving Prime Minister in the UK’s political history was accused of not going by adhering to the party’s manifesto that she campaigned on to come to power. A senior Conservative party MP, Henry Smith, who endorsed Ms. Braverman and then Ms. Truss for the leadership, said that the party can no longer delay removing the Prime Minister and called on her to do the honorable thing. For him, Truss’ premiership has made consistent wrong calls since coming into office almost two months ago and it was about time to leave office.

Resignation and sacking from the government made situations worse and for some reason, much as her premiership was the shortest for any prime minister in history, her leadership also saw the shortest serving home secretary and the second shortest serving chancellor.

Indications are that Kwasi Kwarteng’s dismissal caused several senior figures to be ousted from the government, which bred instability within the party.

After Suella Braverman resigned as Home Secretary and the government worked to defeat a bill that would ban fracking on 19 October, which was viewed as a confidence vote and was subject to a three-line whip, the pressure for Truss to resign increased.

The opposition Labour Party reckons that the resignation of Truss has shaken the very foundation of the democratic dispensation of the British people. It has cast a snare on the reputation of the country in the eyes of the international community.

Conservative Party has “shown it no longer has a mandate to govern”, adding that British people “deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos”.

Circumstances are such that things fall apart and the center can no longer hold. According to the Labour Sir Keir Starmer “The Tories cannot respond to their latest shambles by yet again simply clicking their fingers and shuffling the people at the top without the consent of the British people,”

Dozens of Conservative MPs had called for Liz Truss to resign even after she had met the senior Conservative responsible for establishing whether she commands the confidence of her MPs as she battles an open revolt after a calamitous 24 hours.

Desperate measures have been employed as the Bank of England was forced to intervene with a temporary bond-buying scheme to shore up pension and LDI funds, the government abandoned almost all pledges made in the Mini Budget and Kwarteng was sacked as chancellor, with Jeremy Hunt appointed in his place.

All these could not save Truss from the position she had sacrificed her best friend, Kwasi Kwarteng for. Standing at the exact place where she announced her acceptance as the Prime Minister espousing deliver, deliver, deliver which was never delivered, and the sacking of Kwasi Kwarteng, she also announced her resignation admitting that she cannot deliver the mandate on which she was elected by the Conservative Party.

Now the road is clear for the election of a new Conservative Party leader to replace her as the next Prime Minister. Who comes on or comes back? Time will tell.

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