Liz Truss Announces Her Resignation, Provokes Calls for General Elections

Oct. 20, 2022 (EIRNS)—British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation this afternoon, Oct. 20, after holding a meeting with the Conservative Party’s so-called 1922 Committee.

Reading her letter of resignation at a press conference in front of 10 Downing Street, she said: “I recognize ... given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate 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 as Leader of the Conservative Party.”

She will step down after a week-long emergency contest among Tory MPs and party members as to who will replace her. Now, after Britain has just undergone the shortest-serving Prime Minister in its parliamentary history, and following the nearly-equally disastrous fiasco of the last days of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, there have been calls for general elections from all the opposition party leaders, including Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party, who wrote on her Twitter account, “There are no words to describe this utter shambles adequately. It’s beyond hyperbole—& parody....”

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey wrote on his Twitter account, “We don’t need another Conservative Prime Minister lurching from crisis to crisis. We need a general election now and the Conservatives out of power.”

Leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer issued a longer statement, also demanding an immediate general election. In part he wrote, “After 12 years of Tory failure, the British people deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos....”

There is little doubt that a general election would lead to a Tory defeat, and there has been much speculation in the last days that a new election would put Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer into No. 10 Downing Street. Unfortunately, on the issue of Russia, Starmer has been a team player.