The resignation of British Prime Minister Liz Truss after just six weeks in office will not change the strong friendship and close cooperation between the US and UK governments, President Joe Biden has said.
In a statement released on Thursday after Ms Truss announced that she would step down after just 45 days in 10 Downing Street, Mr Biden said the US and UK remain “strong allies and enduring friends” and stressed that fact “will never change”.
The president also thanked Ms Truss “for her partnership on a range of issues,” and specifically noted her assistance in “holding Russia accountable for its war against Ukraine”.
“We will continue our close cooperation with the UK government as we work together to meet the global challenges our nations face,” Mr Biden added.
The president also addressed Ms Truss’ impending exit from Downing Street in a brief question-and-answer session with reporters as he departed the White House for an appearance in Pittsburgh.
Asked whether Ms Truss did the right thing by stepping down, Mr Biden said that was for her to decide. But he told reporters she had been “a great partner on Russia and Ukraine”.
Mr Biden also voiced confidence in the UK government’s ability to bring an end to the turmoil in Westminster, telling reporters: “The British are going to solve their problem”.
Ms Truss’ resignation will make her the shortest-tenured British prime minister in history, and comes after weeks of turmoil which began after she and then-chancellor of the exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng rolled out a mini-budget that would have cut taxes on high income earners without corresponding reductions in government spending.
Her budgetary plans roiled financial markets, leading the pound to drop precipitously against the dollar and fears of a run on pension funds.
She announced her decision to quit outside No 10 on Thursday alongside her husband, Hugh O’Leary, describing herself as having entered office “at a time of great economic and international instability” and lamented that the UK had, in her estimation, been “held back for too long by low economic growth”.
Although she praised herself for having “delivered on energy bills and on cutting national insurance” for “[setting] out a vision for a low tax, high growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit,” Ms Truss also said she recognised that she could not “deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party”.
Her six weeks in office will make her the shortest-serving prime minister in history, besting the previous record-holder, the 119-day tenure of George Canning.
Canning’s 119 days in office came to an end when he died in 1827.
