All Trussed Up, Con't

UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, drowning in the Tory budget mess that nearly sank the British pound, announced her resignation this morning.

 

Liz Truss is continuing her statement outside Number 10.

In front of dozens of reporters she says she came into office at a time of "great economic and international instability".

She added: "I recognise... given the situation I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party."

Liz Truss goes on to say that she met with 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady today.

They agreed there will be a leadership election within the next week, adding that she will remain as prime minister until a successor is chosen.

The shortest government in modern British history, 44 days, and I'm not sure that the Tories can prevent a new general election, where Labour now has something like a 30-point lead in the polls and a government itself notable only for presiding over the death of QE II. BBC's Nick Eardley:

 

I've never seen anything like this. Let's be clear what's happened: yesterday Truss told us she was a fighter.

But the level of chaos in government, Parliament and the Conservative Party has led Truss to a point where she knows she can't continue.

What happens now is the quickest turnover of power we have seen in modern times.

This is a lightning speed change. The question is whether the Conservative Party can coalesce around a new leader and whether the party can avoid a general election.

In October we are going to have our third PM of the year.

This is an unprecedented situation and an unprecedented short tenure as PM and an unprecedented crisis in British politics.

 

Nobody's seen anything like this. Hic sunt dracones.