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Peter Davidson

Liz Truss: What happened on every day of Prime Minister's 44 days in charge

Liz Truss has resigned after serving just 44 days as Prime Minister having causing chaos in the markets, losing two Cabinet members and creating turmoil on Tory backbenches.

The Prime Minister announced her resignation on Thursday afternoon during a short statement in Downing Street after meeting with 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady.

Less than 24 hours prior she told Keir Starmer that she is "a fighter, not a quitter". She is also set to become the shortest serving Prime Minister in history.

Speaking from a lectern in Downing Street Truss said she had told the King she was resigning as the leader of the Conservative Party as she recognised she "cannot deliver the mandate" which Tory members gave her a little over six weeks ago.

It has been a turbulent six weeks in power for Truss from dealing with the Queen's death to crashing the economy after the mini-budget.

So, here's how every day of Truss's premiership panned out:

Day 1 - Travels to meet the Queen at Balmoral in Aberdeenshire where she accepts her invitation to take over from Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. During a speech on the steps of Downing Street she pays tribute to Johnson and vows to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

She said: "We will transform Britain into an aspiration nation…with high-paying jobs, safe streets and where everyone everywhere has the opportunities they deserve."

Truss appoints her Cabinet. Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor, Suella Braverman as Home Secretary and James Cleverly as Foreign Secretary.

Day 2 - Truss announces that she will make a statement in the House of Commons on the current energy crisis with help expected to be given to families across the country.

She faces Labour leader Keir Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions where he keeps her campaign promise of tax cuts and then attacks the SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford.

Day 3 - Truss announces to the House of Commons that an energy price cap will be put in place for two years to help people with their bills.

Shortly after her announcement to MPs she was contacted by Buckingham Palace saying the Queen was unwell. A short time later the Queen passed away at Balmoral Castle. She addressed the nation outside Downing Street saying: "Through thick and thin, Queen Elizabeth II provided us with the stability and the strength that we needed.

"She was the very spirit of Great Britain – and that spirit will endure."

Day 4 - Addressing the Commons during a special tribute session to the late Queen she says: "She was the rock on which modern Britain was built. She came to the throne – at just 25 – in a country that was emerging from the shadow of war.

"She bequeaths a modern, dynamic nation that has grown and flourished under her reign. The United Kingdom is the great country it is today because of her."

Following the lengthy session she meets the new King in Buckingham Palace for the first time. After their meeting the King addresses the nation for the first time.

Liz Truss meeting King Charles for the first time (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Day 5 - Attends the Ascension Council for King Charles at St James's Palace in London.

Day 6 - The Queen's coffin is moved from Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire to Edinburgh where a service will take place.

Day 7 - Truss travels to Scotland to attend the service for the Queen at St Giles' Cathedral where she accompanies King Charles and the Royal Family.

Day 8 - She travels to Belfast to attend a service with the King and Queen Consort.

Day 9 - The Queen's coffin is moved from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall in central London. Truss is in attendance at the Hall to greet the coffin.

Day 10 - Liz Truss is criticised after it emerges that she is expected to scrap the bankers' bonuses cap.

Day 11 - She accompanies King Charles and the Queen Consort for a visit to Cardiff ahead of the funeral.

Day 12 - In the lead up to the Queen's funeral she meets and calls world leaders, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates.

Day 13 - Meets world leaders including Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and President Andrzej Duda of Poland at Buckingham Palace.

Day 14 - The Queen's funeral is held at Westminster Abbey in London. She then flies to New York for a United Nations summit.

Day 15 - In New York she meets with French President Emmanuel Macron who agrees to keep strong ties.

Day 16 - Meets with US President Joe Biden in New York ahead of addressing the United Nations General Assembly.

Liz Truss holding a bilateral with US President Joe Biden (PA)

Day 17 - Travels back to the United Kingdom ahead of the mini-budget statement by the Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

Day 18 - Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announces the mini-budget with the biggest tax cuts in nearly 50 years in the UK. After his announcement the market goes into turmoil with the pound plummeting.

Day 19 - Criticism continues after the mini-budget with backbench Tory MP Charles Walker saying: "I sat and watched in amazement. Three words. It is extraordinary."

Day 20 - In a bid to calm markets, she tweets: "I have a clear plan to build a Britain where everyone everywhere can realise their potential. We will usher in a decade of dynamism by focusing relentlessly on economic growth."

Day 21 - On Monday, September 26 the pound plunges after the markets open for trading with many Tory MPs slamming Truss and Kwarteng over the mini-budget.

Day 22 - Labour leader Keir Stamer accuses Truss of losing control of Britain's economy.

Day 23 - Bank of England buys government debt.

Day 24 - Almost a week on, the PM insists the Government had to "take urgent action to get the economy growing" in her first public comments since the mini-budget market turmoil. Labour takes 33 per cent rise in poll.

Day 25 - Holds an emergency meeting with the Office for Budget Responsibility

Day 26 - News emerges that Kwasi Kwarteng celebrated disastrous budget with hedge fund managers.

Day 27 - Truss acknowledges mistakes over the mini-budget but says she is standing by her tax-cutting plan as she refuses to rule out public spending cuts.

The PM admits she could have done more to prepare the ground for Kwarteng's financial statement, and she faces accusations of throwing her Chancellor "under the bus" by saying the abolition of the 45p top rate of tax was made by him, and not discussed with the Cabinet.

Day 28 - In a dramatic U-turn, Truss and Kwarteng abandon their plan to abolish the 45p rate of income tax for top earners.

"We get it, and we have listened," the Chancellor says, in language echoed in a tweet from the PM less than 24 hours after she said she remained absolutely committed to the cut.

Somewhat embarrassingly, Truss was still defending the 45p tax rate in a TV interview filmed just hours before the U-turn.

Day 29 - Kwarteng says the Queen's death added to the "high-pressure" environment around the preparation of the mini-budget. In an interview with GB News, he says it is important to place the so-called fiscal event in the "context" of the Queen's death and funeral.

Day 30 - Truss pledges she will "get us through the tempest" and "get Britain moving" as she delivers her first Tory conference speech as party leader.

Day 31 - Truss meets European leaders in Prague.

Day 32 - Calls continue for a reversal of the mini-budget.

Day 33 - Four Cabinet ministers urge colleagues to rally behind Truss as the PM battles to steady the Tory ship following a week blighted by infighting.

Day 34 - It's reported there could be U-turn of the mini-budget.

Day 35 - Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng is forced to bring the October Medium-Term Fiscal Plan forward to the last day of the month in a bid to settle the markets.

Day 36 - The Bank of England is forced again, spending billions of pounds, to intervene to sure up the markets following the mini-budget.

Day 37 - During her second outing at Prime Minister's Question in the House of Commons she is tore apart by Labour leader Keir Starmer. Truss announces during the exchanges that there will be no public spending in the future. Following PMQs she attends the 1922 backbench committee who criticise her leadership.

Day 38 - Rumours circulate among Conservative MPs about Truss's future with many calling for her to reverse her mini-budget to reassure the markets.

Day 39 - Sacks Kwasi Kwarteng as her Chancellor and replaces him with former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Kwarteng becomes the second shortest serving Chancellor following his sacking.

Truss reverses proposed cut on corporation tax from 25 per cent to 19 per cent after pressure from her own MPs and the markets. Holds an 8 minute 21 seconds press conference where she answers four questions. It leaves many Tory MPs furious.

Kwasi Kwarteng was sacked as Chancellor of the Exchequer by Prime Minister Liz Truss (PA)

Day 40 - US President Joe Biden made an unusual intervention while on a visit to Oregon. When he was asked about Liz Truss's original economic plan, he said: "I wasn't the only one that thought it was a mistake."

Day 41 - Jeremy Hunt insists Truss is "in charge" of her government after claims the new Chancellor was now the most powerful member of her Cabinet. Following his interview on the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show senior Tory MP Crispin Blunt was the first to publicly call for her to resign.

He told Andrew Marr: "I think the game is up and it's now a question as to how the succession is managed."

Day 42: New Chancellor Jeremy Hunt reversed her entire mini-budget apart from a couple of policies including the cut in national insurance. The biggest surprise being the axing of the energy price cap in April next year leaving families facing rocketing fuel bills after the cap ends.

Another two Tory MPs (Angela Richardson and Sir Charles Walker) call for her to resign over her handling of the mini-budget. During an interview with the BBC she says "sorry" and admits "mistakes" were made in the fiscal statement announced by the previous Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

Day 43: Truss stands down on her commitment to increase pensions in line with benefits. More disquiet among Tory MPs about her leadership. Meets with the right-wing European Research Group (ERG) in the Commons.

Day 44: The PM declares she is a "fighter, not a quitter" and insists she is "completely committed" to the triple lock on state pensions at PMQs. Tory MPs are told a Labour vote in the Commons seeking to ban fracking is being treated as a "confidence motion" in Ms Truss's embattled Government.

Deputy chief whip Craig Whittaker warns his colleagues the vote is a "100% hard" three-line whip, indicating that dozens of Conservatives who oppose the controversial gas extraction method face being kicked out of the parliamentary party if they do not follow orders in the lobbies. But confusion ensues when climate minister Graham Stuart tells the Commons: "Quite clearly this is not a confidence vote."

Scenes inside Westminster where MPs were voting on fracking (Chris Bryant)

It leads to ugly scenes at Westminster, with Cabinet ministers Therese Coffey and Jacob Rees-Mogg among a group of senior Tories accused of pressuring colleagues to go into the "no" lobby. Labour former minister Chris Bryant claims some MPs were "physically manhandled". Meanwhile, Suella Braverman dramatically quits as home secretary, citing a "technical infringement" of the ministerial rules, and criticising Truss's "tumultuous" premiership.

Labour's motion is defeated by 230 votes to 326, majority 96, but there is speculation that Chief Whip Wendy Morton and her deputy, Craig Whittaker, have resigned in fury at the handling of the affair. At 9.49pm - more than two hours after the vote - No 10 issues a statement saying both remain in post.

Overnight, Downing Street says Stuart was "mistakenly" told to say it was not a confidence motion, adding that Conservative MPs were "fully aware" it was subject to a three-line whip. A spokesman says the whips will be speak to the Tories who failed to support the Government, and those without a "reasonable excuse" will face "proportionate disciplinary action".

Prime Minister Liz Truss announces her resignation outside Number 10 Downing Street (REUTERS)

Day 45: At around noon, as the Prime Minister's official spokesperson tells reporters there are no changes to Ms Truss's plan to stay in office beyond October 31, it is reported that she is in talks with Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the powerful 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers.

A Downing Street source says Ms Truss invited Sir Graham to Downing Street as part of a "taking the temperature" exercise, gauging the mood of Tory MPs. Just over an hour later, it emerges that Ms Truss will give a statement at Downing Street, and a lectern is swiftly set up outside the famous black door.

At 1.30pm, the Prime Minister steps out to the lectern and says she has told the King she is resigning as leader of the Conservative Party. In a brief speech, she tells the country she recognises she "cannot deliver the mandate" which Tory members gave her a little over six weeks ago. She says she will stay on as Prime Minister until a successor is chosen via a leadership election to be completed in the next week.

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