Liz Truss has become the shortest serving Prime Minister in British history
Liz Truss has resigned from her role as Prime Minister following a scandalous 24 hours at Westminster.
On Thursday, Number 10 confirmed that the Tory leader met with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the influential 1922 Committee of backbench MPs.
This was an unscheduled meeting, and no reason was given for why it was taking place.
Truss has since confirmed in a statement outside Number 10 that she has decided to resign from her position as Prime Minister.
This makes her the shortest serving Prime Minister in British history. She served just 44 days in office, smashing the previous record set by George Canning, who died in 1827 after 119 days in office.
It comes after one of the most chaotic and tumultuous days ever seen in Parliament.
Wednesday saw Suella Braverman leave her role as Home Secretary, followed by confusion over whether the chief whip had resigned, and reports of bullying and manhandling in the parliamentary lobby over a vote on fracking.
This was after a humiliating few weeks in office which saw the Prime Minister sack her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng just weeks after he had implemented her financial plan in the government’s disastrous mini-budget.
She then announced that Jeremy Hunt would be the new chancellor, someone who has publicly disagreed with Truss’ economic strategy of tax cuts, and made this clear by putting her mini-budget through the shredder.
This was followed by a number of Tory MPs publicly calling for Truss to resign from her role.
Liz Truss is about to resign as Prime Minister after 44 days, matching Brian Clough's time at Leeds.
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) October 20, 2022
Truss confirmed that there would be a leadership election within a week but it is unclear who will take over from her.
So far, Conservatives have been unable to united behind one successor, although Rishi Sunak, Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt and Ben Wallace have all been mentioned as possible successors.
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