Just 45 days after coming to office, UK Prime Minister Lizz Truss stepped down from office on Thursday, October 20, becoming the PM to have served the shortest term ever in the country. After news of the resignation broke, the beleaguered leader said she had spoken to King Charles III to notify him of her resignation and also met the 1922 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady, in charge of Tory leadership elections, who has said a new Tory leader should be in place by next Friday.
Truss took over after former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson in September after the former failed to survive the "party game" scandal. And yet, the new PM Truss had barely a week of peace in office before her political program collapsed. Her resignation on her 45th day in office makes her the shortest-serving Prime Minister in Britain's history. The second shortest-serving prime minister was George Canning, who served for 119 days before he died in office in 1827.
Here is a short timeline of Truss' rather humiliating tenure:
September 5: Truss wins a vote by Conservative party members by 81,326, against 60,399 for Rishi Sunak, who served as finance minister under previous prime minister Boris Johnson. However, despite being the new leader of the largest party in Parliament (which makes her the PM), she had leaa tha 0.2 percent support of the electorate.
September 6: Truss becomes PM after being confirmed by Queen Elizabeth. Kwasi Kwarteng is appointed as chancellor of the exchequer by Truss.
September 8: Truss introduces a controversial and expensive scheme to cap household energy bills by way of Britain's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. However, the Queen passes away on the same day, suspending all government activities for the next 10 days.
September 23: The contentious "Mini Budget", also dubbed the 'Kami-Kwasi' detailing energy scheme prices over the six months unveiled by Kwarteng would require £60 billion ($67 billion). However, no measures to raise funds are announced. Major new borrowing schemes were announced instead. The move was met with political resistance and outrage. The markets also respond disapprovingly with the pound plummetting towards parity against the dollar.
September 26: Pound plummets to new depths following more Kwarteng's announcement of more 'tax cuts'.
September 28: A two-week programme to buy long-term UK bond announced by Bank of England, to fix the turmoil in the bond market that put British pension funds in jeopardy. The programme would cost £65 billion and was intended to "to restore orderly market conditions".
September 29: Labour Party, the main Opposition in the UK, reports a 33-point lead as per statistics by YouGov report. It is the biggest margin over the Tories that the Labour party has managed to gain since the time of Labour PM Tony Blair in the late 1990s.
October 3: Truss and the Chancellor scrap the proposed tax cuts after rushed midnight talks in what is seen as an. embarrassing U-turn for he Truss government.
October 5: Truss doubled down on her "growth, growth, growth" agenda in her address but both party and the markets remained unsure. Rising mortgage rates impact UK households, leading to further discontent.
October 10-October 12: More U-turns continue with Kwartend first revealing he will release the medium-term fiscal plan alongside independent budget forecasts on October 31. Further cuts to public spending, however, were dropped after yet another U-turn announced by Truss despite promises of no further modifications. The image of the government, however, fails to inspire confidence.
October 14: Kwarteng fired after just 38 days in the role as markets remain grim. The Chancellor, in response, writes to the PM explaining his moves as essential to save British economy. Former foreign minister Jeremy Hunt appointed as the new Chancellor.
October 19: Indian-origin hardline interior minister Suella Braverman quit following a row with Truss and Hunt over immigration, alleging that she had "serious concerns" about the government. The incident brought further embarrassment for Truss government and local tabloids called the day a day of "mayhem". A fracking ban vote in Parliament also descends into chaos. While Truss won the trust vote, several MPs rebelled. Media called it the death knell for the Truss government.
(With inputs from Agencies)
