Ms. Liz Truss has gone into record as the shortest serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as she announced her designation on Thursday, 20 October 2022.
Robert Walpole is the only person to have served as prime minister for more than two decades.
Truss dramatically resigned as prime minister after just 45 days in the office.
She said her successor will be elected in a Tory leadership contest, to be completed in the next week.
The PM said she is resigning as she cannot deliver on the mandate of of her party to cut taxes and boost economic growth given the situation.
Tory MPs urged Ms Truss to go after her government was engulfed by political turmoil, following the ditching of most of her economic policies.
Ms Truss was elected by the Tory membership in September, but she lost authority after a series of U-turns.
In a speech outside Downing Street, Ms Truss said the Conservative Party had elected her on a mandate to cut taxes and boost economic growth.
But given the situation, Ms Truss said: “I recognise that I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.”
Ms Truss said she would remain in post until a successor formally takes over as party leader and is appointed prime minister by King Charles III.
Jeremy Hunt – who was appointed chancellor last week – has said he will not stand in the leadership contest to be the next prime minister.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for an immediate general election following Ms Truss’s resignation speech.
In her speech, Ms Truss said she entered “office at a time of great economic and international instability”, as war rages in Ukraine and living costs skyrocket.
But her resignation comes after a key minister, former home secretary Suella Braverman, quit and Tory MPs rebelled in a chaotic parliamentary vote.
