Why Was Liz Truss Prime Minister for Just 44 Days?
Earlier today, British prime minister Liz Truss resigned from her post after just 44 days in office, making her the shortest-serving leader in UK history and continuing the unprecedented political turmoil that has engulfed the country throughout 2022.
Why was Truss elected in the first place?
Liz Truss’s ascension to the position of prime minister is one few would have predicted a year ago, given former leader Boris Johnson’s Teflon-like ability to weather the many scandals that plagued his time in office. Johnson was first elected as leader of the Conservative party in 2019 after Theresa May’s multiple unsuccessful attempts to pass a Brexit withdrawal agreement saw her resign from the post. Despite ultimately shepherding through his own agreement with the European Union—and leading the party to a decisive victory with a snap election in December of 2019—Johnson’s tenure as prime minister was one consistently mired in controversy.
Disputes arose around everything from Johnson’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic to an expensive refurbishment (funded in part by a Conservative donor) of his private residence at Downing Street—plus, of course, the infamous so-called partygate scandal involving social gatherings at Downing Street at the height of lockdown. But ultimately it was the revelation that Johnson was fully aware of allegations of sexual misconduct against Member of Parliament Chris Pincher when he promoted him to deputy chief whip (and then Johnson’s attempts to lie about this knowledge) that sealed his fate, with mass resignations from senior ministers forcing Johnson to announce his own resignation.
A lengthy leadership contest followed, involving a six-week voting process by the party’s roughly 150,000 members, with former treasurer Rishi Sunak and former foreign secretary Truss emerging as the front-runners. On September 6, after winning the vote by a narrow margin, Truss was elected leader of the Conservatives and thus prime minister, being appointed so by the queen at Balmoral in Scotland in one of Her Majesty’s last official acts before her passing two days later.
Why was her tenure so controversial?
Almost as soon as Truss had crossed the Downing Street threshold, debate began to swirl about her suitability for the role—a conversation that was temporarily paused during the period of national mourning following the queen’s death.
On September 23, Truss’s chancellor of the exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, delivered his mini budget, which was heralded as an initiative to stimulate the British economy—already flagging due to rampant inflation, a cost-of-living crisis, and rising fuel prices. The economic policies included an array of tax cuts that disproportionally benefitted the wealthy—including lowering income taxes for the country’s highest earners and reversing a planned rise in corporation tax—and were immediately met with fierce and widespread criticism, not just from the opposition party but also from economists and international leaders.
The effects were disastrous. Within 24 hours, the value of the British pound plummeted, falling to an all-time low against the US dollar; the crash also prompted a large proportion of mortgage products to be taken off the market, caused interest rates to soar, and imperiled the stability of UK pension funds. Not only was the Bank of England forced to intervene, promising to buy up to £65 billion in government bonds, but the International Monetary Fund issued an uncharacteristically scathing statement about the measures, noting that they would “likely increase inequality” and urging the British government to rethink their plan.
Despite a planned acceleration of the declared budget for these cuts, Truss and Kwarteng’s economic experiment floundered—even if it took a number of weeks for them to admit it. Eventually, on October 14, Truss asked for Kwarteng’s resignation and replaced him with former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who then went on to reverse the majority of Truss’s proposed economic plan in a humiliating U-turn for the already beleaguered prime minister. While this restored some stability to the economic turbulence of the previous weeks, many believed that given the abject failure of Truss’s signature policy of tax cuts, her days as leader were numbered.
What was the final straw for Truss?
Despite polls indicating that Truss was the least popular prime minister in British history, she seemed determined to soldier on, saying as recently as the day before her resignation that she was “a fighter and not a quitter.”
There were two final nails in Truss’s coffin. The first came after her pick for foreign secretary, the former barrister Suella Braverman, was forced to resign on October 19 after breaching the ministerial code by sending a government document to a colleague from a personal email address. Already a controversial pick for the cabinet due to her position on the right of the already right-wing Conservative party and her proposed draconian immigration policies, Braverman set off a political bomb by writing a resignation letter that was highly critical of Truss’s premiership.
The most devastating blow, however, came after a chaotic vote was held on the future of fracking in the UK. Given the Conservatives had pledged to put a moratorium on fracking in their 2019 manifesto—and the fact that many in Truss’s party and even her cabinet have been outspoken critics of fracking—the vote, which attempted to defeat a Labour bill to ban the practice outright, quickly descended into lawlessness.
Ministers were told earlier in the day by the whips that the vote would be a motion of confidence in the government, meaning that if they refused to vote along the prescribed lines, they would be kicked out of the party; reports from the voting lobby suggested that ministers had been physically manhandled to force them to vote, with even those within the party describing the scenes as “inexcusable” and an “absolute disgrace.” With the dysfunctional state of the party in full view, Truss’s time as leader was clearly up.
How did she resign?
Despite ongoing speculation that Truss’s departure from office was all but inevitable, few were aware in advance of her decision to resign today. With news breaking in the late hours of the morning that Truss was planning to deliver remarks outside 10 Downing Street at 1:30 p.m. GMT, news outlets quickly surmised that she was likely to be offering her resignation.
“I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability,” she said from a lectern outside the official residence. “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 has been held back for too long by low economic growth.”
After acknowledging that she had failed to deliver on addressing these ongoing issues, she noted that she had already notified King Charles that she would be resigning as leader. “This morning I met the chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady,” she continued. “We’ve agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week. This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security. I will remain as prime minister until a successor has been chosen. Thank you.”
What happens next?
Because Britain operates as a parliamentary democracy rather than a presidential system—essentially, the country elects a political party as opposed to a specific leader—the Conservative party is only able to replace Truss following an internal ballot on the next leader. (It is, of course, this exact process that has led in part to the UK’s ongoing political turbulence, with whoever is elected next set to be the fifth prime minister in six years.)
As Truss noted, they will be expediting the process this time around, with a new leader to be announced as soon as October 28. Conservative MPs will whittle the pool of candidates down to a final two, and the party’s membership will vote online in the coming week on the two candidates. Sunak has already emerged as a front-runner, while Penny Mordaunt, who reached the final round of voting in the leadership contest following Johnson’s resignation, is a close second. However, a further spanner may still be thrown in the works, with reports emerging today that Johnson himself may be planning to announce he is running as a candidate; not only would it serve as a startling political comeback, but it would be likely to cause even greater turmoil given Johnson’s popularity with a loyal contingent of Conservative voters.
Many view the possibility of the Conservatives electing a fourth prime minister who has not been voted into office by a general election as not only immoral but fundamentally antidemocratic—especially given the remarkably brief length of Truss’s time in office. The leader of the Labour party, Keir Starmer, has made repeated calls for a general election to be held: If such a measure were to be taken, polls indicate that the Conservatives would suffer a devastating defeat, with Starmer leading, in some predictions, by as much as 30% of the vote.
Either way, in as soon as a week, Britain will have a new prime minister—and even the most seasoned political pundits will admit that who that might be remains anyone’s guess.
Earlier today, British prime minister Liz Truss resigned from her post after just 44 days in office, making her the shortest-serving leader in UK history and continuing the unprecedented political turmoil that has engulfed the country throughout 2022.
Why was Truss elected in the first place?
Liz Truss’s ascension to the position of prime minister is one few would have predicted a year ago, given former leader Boris Johnson’s Teflon-like ability to weather the many scandals that plagued his time in office. Johnson was first elected as leader of the Conservative party in 2019 after Theresa May’s multiple unsuccessful attempts to pass a Brexit withdrawal agreement saw her resign from the post. Despite ultimately shepherding through his own agreement with the European Union—and leading the party to a decisive victory with a snap election in December of 2019—Johnson’s tenure as prime minister was one consistently mired in controversy.
Disputes arose around everything from Johnson’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic to an expensive refurbishment (funded in part by a Conservative donor) of his private residence at Downing Street—plus, of course, the infamous so-called partygate scandal involving social gatherings at Downing Street at the height of lockdown. But ultimately it was the revelation that Johnson was fully aware of allegations of sexual misconduct against Member of Parliament Chris Pincher when he promoted him to deputy chief whip (and then Johnson’s attempts to lie about this knowledge) that sealed his fate, with mass resignations from senior ministers forcing Johnson to announce his own resignation.
A lengthy leadership contest followed, involving a six-week voting process by the party’s roughly 150,000 members, with former treasurer Rishi Sunak and former foreign secretary Truss emerging as the front-runners. On September 6, after winning the vote by a narrow margin, Truss was elected leader of the Conservatives and thus prime minister, being appointed so by the queen at Balmoral in Scotland in one of Her Majesty’s last official acts before her passing two days later.
Why was her tenure so controversial?
Almost as soon as Truss had crossed the Downing Street threshold, debate began to swirl about her suitability for the role—a conversation that was temporarily paused during the period of national mourning following the queen’s death.
On September 23, Truss’s chancellor of the exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, delivered his mini budget, which was heralded as an initiative to stimulate the British economy—already flagging due to rampant inflation, a cost-of-living crisis, and rising fuel prices. The economic policies included an array of tax cuts that disproportionally benefitted the wealthy—including lowering income taxes for the country’s highest earners and reversing a planned rise in corporation tax—and were immediately met with fierce and widespread criticism, not just from the opposition party but also from economists and international leaders.
The effects were disastrous. Within 24 hours, the value of the British pound plummeted, falling to an all-time low against the US dollar; the crash also prompted a large proportion of mortgage products to be taken off the market, caused interest rates to soar, and imperiled the stability of UK pension funds. Not only was the Bank of England forced to intervene, promising to buy up to £65 billion in government bonds, but the International Monetary Fund issued an uncharacteristically scathing statement about the measures, noting that they would “likely increase inequality” and urging the British government to rethink their plan.
Despite a planned acceleration of the declared budget for these cuts, Truss and Kwarteng’s economic experiment floundered—even if it took a number of weeks for them to admit it. Eventually, on October 14, Truss asked for Kwarteng’s resignation and replaced him with former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who then went on to reverse the majority of Truss’s proposed economic plan in a humiliating U-turn for the already beleaguered prime minister. While this restored some stability to the economic turbulence of the previous weeks, many believed that given the abject failure of Truss’s signature policy of tax cuts, her days as leader were numbered.
What was the final straw for Truss?
Despite polls indicating that Truss was the least popular prime minister in British history, she seemed determined to soldier on, saying as recently as the day before her resignation that she was “a fighter and not a quitter.”
There were two final nails in Truss’s coffin. The first came after her pick for foreign secretary, the former barrister Suella Braverman, was forced to resign on October 19 after breaching the ministerial code by sending a government document to a colleague from a personal email address. Already a controversial pick for the cabinet due to her position on the right of the already right-wing Conservative party and her proposed draconian immigration policies, Braverman set off a political bomb by writing a resignation letter that was highly critical of Truss’s premiership.
The most devastating blow, however, came after a chaotic vote was held on the future of fracking in the UK. Given the Conservatives had pledged to put a moratorium on fracking in their 2019 manifesto—and the fact that many in Truss’s party and even her cabinet have been outspoken critics of fracking—the vote, which attempted to defeat a Labour bill to ban the practice outright, quickly descended into lawlessness.
Ministers were told earlier in the day by the whips that the vote would be a motion of confidence in the government, meaning that if they refused to vote along the prescribed lines, they would be kicked out of the party; reports from the voting lobby suggested that ministers had been physically manhandled to force them to vote, with even those within the party describing the scenes as “inexcusable” and an “absolute disgrace.” With the dysfunctional state of the party in full view, Truss’s time as leader was clearly up.
How did she resign?
Despite ongoing speculation that Truss’s departure from office was all but inevitable, few were aware in advance of her decision to resign today. With news breaking in the late hours of the morning that Truss was planning to deliver remarks outside 10 Downing Street at 1:30 p.m. GMT, news outlets quickly surmised that she was likely to be offering her resignation.
“I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability,” she said from a lectern outside the official residence. “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 has been held back for too long by low economic growth.”
After acknowledging that she had failed to deliver on addressing these ongoing issues, she noted that she had already notified King Charles that she would be resigning as leader. “This morning I met the chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady,” she continued. “We’ve agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week. This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security. I will remain as prime minister until a successor has been chosen. Thank you.”
What happens next?
Because Britain operates as a parliamentary democracy rather than a presidential system—essentially, the country elects a political party as opposed to a specific leader—the Conservative party is only able to replace Truss following an internal ballot on the next leader. (It is, of course, this exact process that has led in part to the UK’s ongoing political turbulence, with whoever is elected next set to be the fifth prime minister in six years.)
As Truss noted, they will be expediting the process this time around, with a new leader to be announced as soon as October 28. Conservative MPs will whittle the pool of candidates down to a final two, and the party’s membership will vote online in the coming week on the two candidates. Sunak has already emerged as a front-runner, while Penny Mordaunt, who reached the final round of voting in the leadership contest following Johnson’s resignation, is a close second. However, a further spanner may still be thrown in the works, with reports emerging today that Johnson himself may be planning to announce he is running as a candidate; not only would it serve as a startling political comeback, but it would be likely to cause even greater turmoil given Johnson’s popularity with a loyal contingent of Conservative voters.
Many view the possibility of the Conservatives electing a fourth prime minister who has not been voted into office by a general election as not only immoral but fundamentally antidemocratic—especially given the remarkably brief length of Truss’s time in office. The leader of the Labour party, Keir Starmer, has made repeated calls for a general election to be held: If such a measure were to be taken, polls indicate that the Conservatives would suffer a devastating defeat, with Starmer leading, in some predictions, by as much as 30% of the vote.
Either way, in as soon as a week, Britain will have a new prime minister—and even the most seasoned political pundits will admit that who that might be remains anyone’s guess.
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