Esha Dev
Liz Truss has resigned after only 44 days in office, and we have been promised a new Prime Minister by the 28th of October in time for the fiscal statement on the 31st. Impact’s Esha Dev reports.
Truss said in her statement that she could not deliver the mandate on which she was elected and has notified the King of her resignation. Within the next week, we can expect a Conservative leadership election and Truss to remain in office until her successor has been chosen.
Truss came into pressure after the home secretary, Suella Braverman, resigned after sharing secure information from a private email. After 43 days as home secretary, Braverman is the shortest serving home secretary. She has been replaced by Grant Shapps who was fired six weeks prior as transport secretary.
After 45 days in office, Truss is officially the shortest serving prime minister
Truss came under further pressure after a chaotic fracking vote where it descended into chaos and some MPs were “physically manhandled” and there was anger around the votes and the method used to get MPs to vote with the government. An investigation has been launched following these allegations.
After 45 days in office, Truss is officially the shortest serving prime minister, beating out George Canning who was in office for 119 days.
We are expecting the MPs to put in all their nominations by Monday and so far the runners to replace her include: Rishi Sunak as the favourite as he was the runner-up in the election race that favoured Truss; Penny Mordaunt who finished third in the electoral race; Ben Wallace who is the defence secretary and former soldier he was neutral in the electoral race before backing Truss; Boris Johnson, the ex-prime minister has had some open support in his party despite him being ousted 3 months ago; Suella Braverman who despite her resignation is still expected to put her hat in the ring as she did earlier this summer.
Jeremy Hunt has already ruled himself out of the running and is said to be focusing on delivering his Medium-Term Fiscal Plan.
Despite there not being a general election expected until January 2025, there is some speculation that one could be called earlier. Truss could have called one now by requesting the King to dissolve Parliament and an election would have happened 25 days later. However, she chose to allow a Conservative election instead.
Sir Keir Starmer has called for a general election and argues that “the public deserve a say”, Starmer said that the conservative party has “shown it no longer has a mandate to govern” and that the British people deserve more than this chaos.
If they don’t sort this out quickly, Starmer’s calls for a general election may become deafening.
Truss’ resignation has sparked recovery for the pound, shares and government borrowing costs after the fierce reaction against her economic plan, however these changes might be slow until the new Conservative leadership get settled.
MPs certainly seem to want a quick resolution rather than a drawn-out race like earlier this summer, yet despite Sunak seeming like the favourite it is not certain that there is a consensus that he will be the one to replace Truss.
If they don’t sort this out quickly, Starmer’s calls for a general election may become deafening.
Esha Dev
Featured image courtesy of James Newcombe via Unsplash Image licence found here. No changes were made to this image.
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