Amid rising speculation over the future of her six-week-old government, Liz Truss resigned as leader of the Conservative Party and as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on Thursday (October 20) after delivering a statement outside 10 Downing Street, the official residence and office of the PM. Truss, who took charge just 45 days ago, has had the shortest tenure as PM in British history.
Resignations of two prime ministers in a little more than three months — Boris Johnson resigned in early July — and the prevailing economic uncertainty is expected to further spook the markets in the world’s sixth-largest economy.
Truss became prime minister on September 6 after being elected the head of the Conservative Party and winning the confidence of her party members in a battle for the leadership against Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson’s chancellor of the exchequer whose resignation had ultimately brought down the previous PM.