Liz Truss could make history for being the shortest serving UK prime minister ever if she is replaced at No.10 as pressure mounts on her premiership, including from members of her own party.
Ms Truss sacked chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and brought in Jeremy Hunt before effectively ditching her own economic agenda in a bid to restore credibility to her administration after revealing a mini-budget that sent markets into meltdown.
But those efforts could prove in vain if Tory MPs decide that a change of leader is required, with three members of Ms Truss’s parliamentary party already breaking ranks to call on her to go.
Crispin Blunt, Andrew Bridgen and Jamie Wallis all called on the prime minister to quit on Sunday, while other senior figures within the parliamentary party expressed deep unease with Ms Truss’s leadership over the weekend but stopped short of calling for her to go.
UPDATE: Liz Truss resigns as prime minister
Mr Blunt was the first MP to demand her exit, telling Channel Four’s Andrew Neil Show on Sunday: “I think the game is up and it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed.”
It came at the end of another extraordinary weekend in British politics, that even saw US president Joe Biden intervene to call Ms Truss’ economic vision a “mistake”.
Having currently served 41 days as prime minister since being appointed on September 6, Ms Truss would have the shortest tenure by some distance behind current title holder George Canning at 119 days in 1827.
It comes as new chancellor Jeremy Hunt will set out billions of pounds of savings to stabilise the public finances in an emergency statement this morning.
The Treasury said the move followed talks over the weekend between Mr Hunt and Ms Truss, and was designed to “ensure sustainable public finances underpin economic growth”.
Following his statement, the chancellor will address the House of Commons later on Monday ahead of the publication of his full medium term fiscal plan on October 31.
Shortest serving UK prime ministers ever
- Liz Truss - 41 days* (2022)
- George Canning - 119 days (1827)
- The Viscount Goderich - 144 days (1827-1828)
- Bonar Law - 211 days (1922-1923)
- The Duke of Devonshire - 225 days (1756-1757)
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