Liz Truss has resigned as Tory leader after a chaotic 44 days in office.
She signalled the end of the shortest term by any prime minister following a botched financial statement, the loss of two of her most senior Cabinet ministers and an open revolt by Tory MPs.
Ms Truss fell 74 days short of George Canning’s 118 full days as PM – the Tory statesman died in office from ill health in 1827, and had, until Thursday, held the unwanted record of shortest serving prime minister.
During her 44 full days in No 10, she oversaw the pound plummeting, the cost of government debt soaring and poll numbers plunging before tearing up her “Trussenomics” plans.
Ms Truss’s first weeks were muted.
Two days after she entered office on September 6 the nation was plunged into a period of mourning by the Queen’s death.
Her Government oversaw Operation Bridges that led up to the Queen’s funeral as Ms Truss maintained a dignified quiet at a time when she wanted to overhaul the nation.
Not long after the mourning period ended, chaos reigned.
Ms Truss’s leadership had been on life support since the markets turned against her following the September 23 mini-budget which promised £45 billion of unfunded tax cuts on top of a massively expensive energy support package.
Axing chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and abandoning most of the plans helped calm the turmoil – as did an emergency intervention in the bond markets by the Bank of England – but left her premiership holed below the waterline.
Wednesday’s chaos, which saw Suella Braverman resign as home secretary, officially for using a personal email to send a sensitive document but also while she was at odds with the Prime Minister over immigration policy, added to pressure on Ms Truss.
She enters the history books as the shortest-lived PM.
