British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned Thursday — bowing to the inevitable after a tumultuous six-week term in which her policies triggered turmoil in financial markets and a rebellion in her party obliterated her authority.
She said, “I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected.”
Having been in the position for only 44 day, Truss officially had the shortest tenure of any prime minister in British history.
Just a day earlier Truss had vowed to stay in power, saying she was “a fighter and not a quitter,” Associated Press reported.
But Truss couldn’t hold on any longer after a senior minister quit her government with a barrage of criticism and a vote in the House of Commons descended into chaos and acrimony just days after she was forced to abandon many of her economic policies.
Her departure leaves a divided Conservative Party seeking a leader who can unify its warring factions.
A growing number of lawmakers had called for Truss to resign after weeks of turmoil sparked by her economic plan.
The plan unveiled by the government last month triggered financial turmoil and a political crisis that has seen the replacement of Truss’ Treasury chief, multiple policy U-turns and a breakdown of discipline in the governing Conservative Party.
Earlier, Conservative lawmaker Simon Hoare said the government was in disarray.
“Nobody has a route plan. It’s all sort of hand-to-hand fighting on a day-to-day basis,” he told the BBC on Thursday. He said Truss had “about 12 hours” to turn the situation around.
