Liz Truss has resigned as the UK’s prime minister after six weeks. Here’s what you need to know about her if you don’t regularly follow politics.
She was the shortest-serving UK prime minister
Liz Truss replaced Boris Johnson as leader and became PM on 6 September then resigned 45 days later. The previous record was set at 119 days by George Canning who died in office in 1827.
She ran into problems very quickly
With her support, finance minster Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled £45bn of tax cuts in her third week, in what they called a “mini-budget”. But it was widely blamed for causing huge economic problems. Despite Truss insisting at the time it was “the right thing to do”, almost all of it has now been reversed – and Kwarteng was sacked as chancellor.
Some of her own MPs started openly criticising her
Dozens of Tories called on her to step down and her Home Secretary Suella Braverman resigned. She had to hire former rivals Grant Shapps and Jeremy Hunt to plug the gaps in her top team.
She said she couldn’t deliver what she had promised
In her resignation speech outside Downing Street, she said: “I recognise that I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.”
She beat former Chancellor Rishi Sunak to be PM
Only Conservative MPs and party members got to vote to make her leader. Sunak came ahead in the MPs vote but in the final vote from members more than 80,000 picked her instead of Sunak, making her the winner.
We don’t know who will replace her
There will be a leadership contest within the next week. She will stay on as leader until her replacement is announced.
She was the last PM appointed by Queen Elizabeth II
The Queen appointed Liz Truss days before she died and her leadership began with a 10-day mourning period.
She used to work as an economist
After university she worked for Shell and Cable & Wireless, and married accountant Hugh O’Leary in 2000. They have two daughters. The family live in Thetford, Norfolk.
