LONDON – Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation on Thursday, a swift end to a six-week rule that began with a radical test in the trickle economy and plunged into financial and political turmoil. rule, as most of those policies have been reversed.
Ms. Truss, 47, concluded that she could not hold power in the hands of Conservative lawmakers with her tax-cutting program. She died as the shortest serving prime minister in British history.
“Given the situation, I can’t give the job for which I was elected by the Conservatives,” said Mrs Truss irritably as she stood on the rainy sidewalk outside 10 Downing Street, where just 44 days ago she had saluted. public as Britain’s new Leader.
Ms. Truss said she will stay in office until the party chooses a successor, at the end of next week. That sets off an extremely pent-up, unpredictable scramble to replace her in a party that is both demoralized and deeply divided. Among the likely candidates is Boris Johnson, the popular previous prime minister she replaced after he was forced out of a series of scandals.
Just a day after declaring in Congress, “I’m a gladiator, not a quitter,” Ms Truss bowed after a hastily scheduled meeting on Thursday with party elders, including Graham Brady, head of a group of Conservative lawmakers. an influential role in the selection of party leaders.
It was the most shocking shock in a week of seismic developments that included the ousting of Ms. Truss’ Exchequer prime minister, Kwasi Kwarteng; the bitter departure of the secretary of the interior, Suella Braverman; and a close scuffle in Parliament on Wednesday night, as cabinet ministers tried to force unruly Tory lawmakers to back the prime minister in a vote on whether to ban hydraulic cracking. .
The scene dramatized Ms Truss – only the third female prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May – to have lost control of her party and government.
Until then, however, Her mission has been shredded: Her proposals for sweeping, non-refundable tax cuts have roiled financial markets over fears they will puncture Britain’s finances.
That sent the pound into a spiral that made it roughly equivalent to the dollar, forcing the Bank of England to intervene in the bond market to prevent a collapse of pension funds and drive world interest rates down. mortgage skyrocketed.
The result was chaos that left Britons frustrated and confused, with many believing the country was losing control.
“We are in an economic crisis, a political crisis, a food crisis – a crisis of everything,” said Cristian Cretu, a gas engineer on leave. “Who will replace her, I don’t think they will make a difference.”
The opposition Labor Party called for an immediate general election. But under British law, the Conservatives are not required to call a meeting until January 2025.
If enough Conservative lawmakers join the opposition, they could be forced to hold an election, but with the party’s support crumbling in opinion polls, they are in the right. for postponing any meeting with voters. The British political convention also allows them to change party leaders – and thus prime minister – using their own flexible rule book.
Ms Truss’ position was shaken on Monday, when her newly appointed prime minister, Jeremy Hunt, announced that the government would undo the last traces of her tax proposals. As Mr. Hunt detailed his revamped financial plan in Parliament, Ms. Truss sat in silence, a distant smile on her lips.
For Britain, it is another chapter in the political turmoil following its vote to leave the European Union in 2016. The country will soon have its fifth prime minister in six. Ms Truss is the third leader in a row to be ousted by the Conservative Party, also known as the Tory Party, which now appears to have split into warring factions and has fallen by 33 percentage points behind the Labor Party. established in the polls.
The political upheaval comes just a month after Britain buried Queen Elizabeth II, who reigned for seven decades and served as an anchor for the country. Among the queen’s last official duties was to greet Mrs Truss at Balmoral Castle after she won the party leadership contest. On Thursday, Ms. Truss said she had informed King Charles III of her decision to step down.
The Conservatives have announced rules for the new leadership contest, including a minimum threshold of 100 nominations from lawmakers, which will limit the number of candidates to a maximum of three.
From a two-man shortlist, selected by lawmakers, Conservative Party members will then vote online to choose the winner, with the goal of avoiding a lengthy, multi-stage campaign into the summer. Last summer resulted in Mrs. Truss. In fact, the competition may not go that far: if only one candidate crosses the 100-nomination threshold, or if the second-placed candidate is eliminated, a decision will be made on Monday.
“In recent leadership contests, they picked someone who was clearly not the right fit for the job,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “There is no one who can rescue them in terms of elections, but there are people who can step into the No. 10 position and do the prime minister’s job intellectually, emotionally and realistically.”
However, the upheavals of recent days have shown how divided the Conservative Party is, after 12 years of impoverished rule, and how difficult it will be for Ms Truss’ successor to unite.
Rishi Sunak, a former prime minister who opposed Ms Truss last summer and warned that her proposals would create chaos, should be in the extreme position, leading the Finance Ministry and doing well under it. pressure in the leadership campaign. But he lost that election in large part because many party members blamed him for bringing down Mr Johnson, from whom he resigned from his cabinet.
“The obvious candidate is Rishi Sunak,” says Professor Bale. “The question is whether they can forgive him. The situation is extremely dire now so everyone can be prepared to forgive his alleged sins.”
However, that remains unclear as Mr Sunak also distrusts the party’s rights and among hardline Brexit supporters in Parliament. His leadership will be difficult to please some of his opponents, including the business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has refused to deny reports that he has described Mr. Sunak’s policies. , including tax increases, is “socialist”.
Supporters of Mr Johnson, who is said to be considering running at his old job, argue that because of his victory in the 2019 election, it is his duty to lead without holding a general election. other. Under the hashtag #bringbackboris, one of his supporters, James Duddridge, wrote on Twitter: “I hope you enjoyed your boss’s holiday. Time to go back. Some problems at the office need to be resolved. “
But reinstating him would be risky, given his forced resignation in July and the fact that he remains a polarizing figure among voters. Mr Johnson is also being investigated by a parliamentary committee into whether he misled the House of Commons about parties being held in Downing Street that broke pandemic rules.
Even if Mr Johnson is vindicated, it will remind Britons of the mass scandals that led lawmakers to oust him. And the committee could recommend the expulsion or suspension of Mr Johnson from Parliament – a form of sanctions that could mean his voters get a vote on whether to remove him from Parliament. hospital completely or not.
The party’s ideological divisions were exposed by Ms. Braverman in a letter written after she was fired, appearing to have breached confidentiality regulations by sending a government document via her personal email. grandma. She alleges that Ms. Truss was opposed to promises and soft on immigration.
Ms Braverman’s farewell footage illustrated the resistance from rightists to what they see as the growing influence of Mr Hunt, a moderate who voted against Brexit and is a supporter as well. as Mr. Sunak’s ally. Mr Hunt, who has twice run for party leader, said he would not be the candidate this time.
If the Conservatives let Downing Street fall into the hands of another uncontested candidate, outside the mainstream, like Ms Braverman or perhaps Kemi Badenoch, who currently serves as international trade minister, it could be. will cause new instability in financial markets.
Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons who finished third in the competition last summer, appears in a good position to cross the divide. She is a good communicator, but untested at the highest levels of government.
Another option might be a candidate with little mental baggage, like Ben Wallace, Secretary of Defense, or Grant Shapps, the new Home Secretary. But Mr Wallace decided not to run for office earlier this year, saying he didn’t want the job enough. Mr Shapps concluded that he did not have the backing to win.
Whoever is chosen will suffer a host of problems, from 10.1% inflation and soaring energy prices to labor unrest and the specter of a deep recession. The new leader will have to cut government spending that is likely to be opposed by various coalitions of Conservative lawmakers.
On Monday, Mr Hunt said the government would end massive state intervention to cap energy prices by April, replacing it with a still-to-be-determined program that he said would boost efficiency. energy. That could be unpopular, increasing uncertainty for households facing rising gas and electricity prices.
While the government has abandoned Ms Truss’ tax cut – one of the most striking policy reversals in modern British history – the chaos her program has caused in the markets has left lasting damages. Economists say the rate hikes have made government borrowing more expensive, which will put pressure on deeper spending cuts.
Despite the Conservative Party’s internal contradictions, Professor Bale said he believes it is not insurmountable, as long as it has the right choice. As recent history has shown, the stakes for this party are extremely high.
“The Conservatives are an extremely dominant party in terms of leadership, which means if you pick the wrong leader you’re in serious trouble,” he said.
Euan ward and Isabella Kwai contribution report.
