Politics LIVE: Liz Truss resigns as Prime Minister triggering leadership contest
Liz Truss has stood down and a leadership election will be triggered – with a new PM to be in power next week.
She is set to become the shortest serving Prime Minister in history after she battled an open revolt from Conservatives demanding her departure.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdSpeaking from a lectern in Downing Street, Ms 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 little over six weeks ago.
She held talks with the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives Sir Graham Brady and agreed to a fresh leadership election “to be completed within the next week”.
We’ll bring you live updates following a day of crisis for the government in Westminster in our live blog throughout the day.
Politics LIVE: Liz Truss resigns as Prime Minister triggering leadership contest
Lord Ed Vaizey said “the only way out of this mess” is for Liz Truss to stand down and for somebody to be appointed as prime minister by Conservative MPs.
“That is still fraught with problems,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.”
He said it is clear from Suella Braverman’s resignation letter that she regards herself as a credible candidate to be prime minister.
“And in terms of kind of shocking self-belief there will be at least five or six people out there who genuinely believe they could be the next prime minister.
“So if the Tory Party cannot have a degree of self-knowledge and realise that the only way forward is to appoint someone they’re pretty much sunk,” he said.
Tory MP Gary Streeter said the party must ditch Liz Truss.
He is the 7th Tory MP to publically call for Truss to go.
Cabinet minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan called for “mutual support” in the Conservative Party.
Asked if Liz Truss will still be in charge on Friday, she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “Yes, she will.”
Put to her that a seventh Tory MP, Gary Streeter, has said the party should ditch the Prime Minister, Ms Trevelyan said: “Just a bit of mutual support is what’s needed.”
She added that she is “very proud” to be the Transport Secretary in this Government.
Conservative Party chairman Jake Berry has arrived in Downing Street.
He was driven straight to the door of No 10 and did not turn to face the cluster of press as he went inside.
A look at the markets...
The pound slid lower on Thursday morning as shaken City traders digested the growing political turmoil.
Sterling declined by 0.27% to 1.119 against the US dollar – its lowest reading this week – as it lost the gains it briefly made earlier.
Meanwhile, yields on UK Government bonds (gilts) moved marginally higher, reflecting an increase in the cost of state borrowing.
The yield on UK 10-year bonds was up 0.018 percentage points at 3.89%.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has been granted a Commons urgent question on the departure of Suella Braverman.
The question will take place at around 10.30am.
The House of Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle has launched an investigation into reports of misconduct in voting lobbies last night.
Hoyle said he had asked the Sergeant at Arms and other officials to “investigate the incident and report back to me”.
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle told the Commons: “I wish to say something about the reports of behaviour in the division lobbies last night.
“I have asked the Serjeant at Arms and other senior officials to investigate the incident and report back to me. I will then update the House.
“I remind Members that the behaviour code applies to them as well as to other members of our parliamentary community, and this gives me another opportunity to talk about the kind of House I want to see and I believe that the vast majority of MPs also want to see.
“I want this to be a House in which we, while we might have very strong political disagreements, treat each other courteously and with respect, and we should show the same courtesy and respect to those who work with and for us.
“To that end I will be meeting with senior party representatives to seek an agreed position that behaviour like that described last night is not acceptable in all circumstances.”