Liz Truss resigns as prime minister after just 44 days in office

Liz Truss has resigned as prime minister after just 44 days in office.

The announcement, made by Truss outside Downing Street, means she becomes the shortest serving PM in history.

She said there would now be a leadership contest which would be completed in just one week.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt immediately announced he would not be standing to replace her.

Truss confirmed she had spoken with King Charles to notify him that she is resigning as the leader of the Conservative party.

“I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability,” she said.

“Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills.

“Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine threatened the security of our whole continent.

She said the country had been “held back for too long by low economic growth”, and that she was elected by her party with a mandate to change this.

Her government “delivered on energy bills” and cut national insurance, she said, as well as “setting out a vision for a low tax high growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit”.

But Truss added:”I recognise I cannot deliver the mandate for which I was elected to lead this party.”

She said there would be a “leadership election to be completed this week” and that she would remain PM until her successor was confirmed.

Her resignation followed a breakdown of party discipline and unity triggered including the departure of the home secretary Suella Braverman.

Thérèse Coffey, the health secretary and deputy prime minister, and Jake Berry, the party chairman, Jake Berry were seen entering No 10 earlier on Thursday along with Sir Graham Brady, head of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers.

Truss had attempted to woo the Jewish community ahead of her election as PM.

She confirmed she was a “huge” supporter of Israel and Zionism.

Labour leader Keir Starmer responded to her resignation saying:“The Conservative Party has shown it no longer has a mandate to govern.

“After 12 years of Tory failure, the British people deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos. In the last few years, the Tories have set record-high taxation, trashed our institutions and created a cost-of-living crisis.”