Political earthquake in the UK. Struggling in recent days, British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation on Thursday after barely six weeks in power which looked like a descent into hell, triggering a new internal election within the Conservative Party. “Given the situation, I cannot fulfill the term on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning”, declared Liz Truss, who becomes the longest-lived head of government in contemporary British history, outside 10 Downing Street.
The day before, it was the Minister of the Interior of the British government, Suella Braverman, who had decided to resign after revealing the use of her personal email. A vote to find him a successor within the Conservative Party will take place “by next week”, added the Conservative leader, who therefore throws in the towel and becomes the Prime Minister to have stayed the shortest time in Downing Street in modern British history, with just 44 days in office. Graham Brady, a Conservative Party official, confirmed this date, promising that the new British Prime Minister will be appointed by October 28.
Record unpopularity
Still Thursday morning, she seemed to be clinging to power, a spokesperson assuring at midday that she was “working” with her finance minister Jeremy Hunt to prepare their medium-term economic plan, the day after a catastrophic day for her. But at the end of the morning, she met the deputy at the head of the powerful 1922 Committee in charge of the internal organization of the conservative party (and therefore of a possible replacement procedure), at a time when the conservative leader was struggling with a majority more and more rebellious, the list of parliamentarians asking for his departure lengthening from hour to hour.
“Liz Truss must leave as soon as possible,” said former Conservative minister David Frost, who previously supported her ardently, in a column at the Daily Telegraph. More unpopular than ever in public opinion, without an economic program after the humiliating renunciation of tax cuts and having had to deprive herself of two of her most important ministers, Liz Truss was sure that she wanted to stay in place, her maintenance in Downing Street seemed well compromised.
In the midst of the economic crisis of the cost of living, which sees millions of Britons suffering from inflation, the Conservative Party restarts an internal election to find a new leader – the fifth in six years -, while the previous one has took place this summer, after the resignation of Boris Johnson, against a backdrop of scandals in Downing Street and in the majority.
Who will be the candidates, while for days, several names have been circulating to succeed Liz Truss, such as those of Rishi Sunak, Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt – the minister responsible for relations with Parliament – or even Boris Johnson, the Prime minister she replaced in September.
Opposition calls for elections now
The Tories have decided to avoid early legislative elections, when the Labor opposition prances ahead in the polls. After Liz Truss’ announcement, their leader Keir Starmer called for a general election to be called “now” and not late 2024 or early 2025 as planned.
The Conservatives “fail in their basic patriotic duty to leave the British out of their pathetic squabbles”, he attacked Thursday morning in a speech before the Trades Union Congress (TUC), at a time when many social movements are agitating the country in the face of the cost of living crisis.
For Liz Truss, Wednesday turned into melodrama. Less than a week after the departure of Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng, replaced by Jeremy Hunt, the government’s new strongman, it was the very right-wing Interior Minister Suella Braverman who left the government over growing differences with Liz Truss on immigration, according to British media. She was replaced by Grant Shapps, former transport minister under Boris Johnson, in what was meant to be a gesture of openness towards Liz Truss’ ex-opponents in the Downing Street race, Shapps having backed Rishi Sunak.
The evening was then eventful in Parliament where a vote – won by the government – about lifting the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing obviously turned into a rat race between the Conservatives. Deputies of the majority refused to vote in the direction of the government, in spite of the reprisals to which they expose themselves, Downing Street having expressly asked to respect the instruction of vote.