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LIVE Liz Truss resigns as

UK prime minister
Watch: BBC News live coverage

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crisis as Liz Truss steps down - click play above

1:29 0:59

Watch Liz Truss step down We need a general election

as PM now, says Keir Starmer

BBC BBC

Summary
Prime Minister Liz Truss has resigned as UK
prime minister in a statement outside Downing
Street
She said she could not deliver the mandate on
which she was elected as Tory leader and had
notified the King that she was resigning
There will be Conservative leadership election to
be completed within the next week, she says
"I will remain as Prime Minister until a successor
has been chosen," she said
It comes aQer she met the chairman of the 1922
Committee of backbench MPs as more Tories
called for her to quit
Truss's premiership came under renewed
pressure aQer the home secretary resigned and a
chaotic vote on fracking
There was fury on Wednesday evening around
the vote and the methods used to get MPs to
vote with the government

Live Reporting Related Stories

Edited by Alex Therrien and Nathan

Williams

20:51

Mordaunt will 'keep calm and carry

on'

Commons leader and former Tory party

leadership contender Penny Mordaunt says
she will "keep calm and carry on" and
encourages others to do the same.

20:48

BREAKING Hunt not running to be PM

Nick Eardley
Chief political correspondent

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has confirmed he

will not stand to be the next Conservative
leader and UK prime minister.

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20:47

WATCH: The moment Truss resigns as

prime minister

Moments ago Liz Truss announced she was

resigning as prime minister, making her the
shortest serving PM in UK history.

Watch the moment she made the

announcement below.

Liz Truss resigns as prime minister

20:45

Muted response on markets to

resignation

There has been a muted response on the

markets aQer Liz Truss announced she was
resigning as prime minister.

The pound rose initially in the immediate

aQermath of the statement before settling
back at around $1.12.

Before she delivered her statement, one

analyst said the markets were "watching in a
kind of stunned, open-mouthed horror" at
political events.

20:44

Truss the briefest serving PM in UK

history

Liz Truss has been in office for just 45 days -

the shortest tenure of any UK prime
minister. The second shortest serving PM
was George Canning, who served for 119
days aQer dying in 1827.

Trouble began when her first Chancellor,

Kwasi Kwarteng, spooked the financial
markets with his mini-budget on 23
September.

Since then, Conservative disquiet has

morphed into widespread anger within the
parliamentary party.

Her stepping down today follows dramatic

scenes in the House of Commons last night
over a vote on fracking. Calls for her to go
kept growing in the hours aQerwards.

20:43

Starmer demands election as Truss

quits

Labour leader Keir Starmer has demanded a

general election "now" aQer Liz Truss
announced her resignation as prime
minister.

20:40

An unprecedented crisis in British

politics
Nick Eardley
Chief political correspondent

PA Media

I've never seen anything like this. Let's be

clear what's happened: yesterday Truss told
us she was a fighter.

But the level of chaos in government,

Parliament and the Conservative Party has
led Truss to a point where she knows she
can't continue.

What happens now is the quickest turnover

of power we have seen in modern times.

This is a lightning speed change. The

question is whether the Conservative Party
can coalesce around a new leader and
whether the party can avoid a general
election.

In October we are going to have our third

PM of the year.

This is an unprecedented situation and an

unprecedented short tenure as PM and an
unprecedented crisis in British politics.

20:36

Leadership contest will take place

within the next week - Truss

Liz Truss goes on to say that she met with

1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham
Brady today.

They agreed there will be a leadership

election within the next week.

She says this will ensure "that we remain on

a path to deliver our fiscal plans and
maintain our country's economic stability
and national security".

Truss says she will remain as prime minister

until a successor has been chosen.

20:36

Truss says she cannot deliver mandate

she was elected on

Liz Truss is continuing her statement

outside Number 10.

In front of dozens of reporters she says she

came into office at a time of "great
economic and international instability".

The country had been held back for too

long, she said, and she was elected by her
party with a "mandate to change this".

She said her government delivered on

energy bills and cutting national insurance,
and had set out a vision for a "low tax high
growth economy".

She added: "I recognise... given the situation

I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was
elected by the Conservative Party."

20:34

Truss announces her

BREAKING resignation as prime
minister

Reuters

Liz Truss has announced her resignation as

prime minister.

Speaking outside Downing Street, she says

she has told King Charles she is resigning as
leader of the Conservative Party.

20:33

Prime minister begins her statement

Liz Truss has walked out of the door of

Downing Street and is now addressing the
country.

20:25

Lectern is out

Getty Images

Ahead of Liz Truss's statement the official

lectern has been wheeled outside Number
10.

We are still expecting the prime minister to

make her statement in the next few
moments.

20:19

Downing Street statement

BREAKING from Liz Truss expected at
13:30

We've just had it confirmed that there will

be a statement given at Downing Street in
about 10 minutes.

We're expecting the prime minister to

speak.

It comes as more and more MPs have called

for her to step down, and aQer a meeting
with senior Tory party figures.

20:18

Another MP calls for Liz Truss to

resign

Ruth Edwards, the Conservative MP for

Rushcliffe, has become the latest MP to call
on the prime minister to go.

In a letter published on ConservativeHome

, she says it is "not responsible for the
party to allow her to remain in power".

She also urged the PM to "step aside, go,

and let someone who is up to the task take
on the great privilege and responsibility of
leading our great country and party".

20:17

What's the latest from Westminster?

Pressure is mounting on Liz Truss as the

number of Tory MPs calling for her to go
has risen since a difficult day in Westminster
yesterday.

This morning the number of MPs publicly

calling for the prime minister to go has
more than doubled within the space of a
couple of hours.

Many are wondering how long Truss can go

on aQer the chaotic scenes in the House of
Commons last night - some MPs alleged
bullying happened during a fracking
motion vote.

This all followed PMQs and the resignation

of Suella Braverman as home secretary.

Truss has been speaking to 1922 chairman

Sir Graham Brady in Downing Street for the
best part of an hour.

The pair have been joined in Number 10 by

Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey and
Tory Party chairman Jake Berry.

Stay with us this aQernoon as we keep you

updated.

20:09

Hartlepool MP submits letter of no

confidence

PA Media

Another Tory MP has submitted a public

letter of no confidence in Liz Truss.

Hartlepool MP Jill Mortimer, who was

elected in a by-election in 2021, shared an
image on her Facebook page.

She wrote: "Yesterday, I tried to get called in

PMQs to ask Liz Truss for an assurance of
support for our town and our promises.

"Sadly I was not called and the deteriorating

situation throughout the day leQ me with
no choice but to submit a letter of no
confidence in the prime minister to Sir
Graham Brady."

More than a dozen MPs have publicly called

for the prime minister to resign.

Report

20:01

In pictures: 24 hours of turmoil

PA Media

A defiant Liz Truss on Wednesday at the

dispatch box during Prime Minister's Questions,
where she insisted: "I'm a fighter, not a quitter"

Getty

Later Grant Shapps was seen leaving Downing

Street as he made his return to cabinet as the
new home secretary

Chris Bryant

Labour MP Chris Bryant claims he saw "clear

bullying" as whips tried to get Conservative MPs
to back Liz Truss in a vote on fracking on
Wednesday evening - he shared this picture on
Twitter

BBC

Backbench Tory MP Charles Walker was visibly

angry as he told the BBC he was "livid" and
there was "no coming back" for the government

Reuters

Chief Whip Wendy Morton arrives in Downing

Street on Thursday - there was confusion on
Wednesday evening over whether she had
resigned, but she was eventually confirmed to
still be in post

Political Pictures

Later, the chair of the 1922 Committee, Sir

Graham Brady, the senior Tory MP responsible
for establishing if a Conservative leader has the
confidence of the party, walked into Downing
Street for talks with the prime minister

19:58

Who is in Downing Street?

It's been another hectic morning in Downing

Street.

We know that Sir Graham Brady, chairman

of the influential 1922 Committee, is in
Downing Street meeting Liz Truss at the
prime minister's request (according to
Downing Street sources).

He arrived at about 11:40 BST.

At about 12:25 Deputy Prime Minister

Therese Coffey arrived in Downing Street
and in the last few moments Tory Party
chairman Jake Berry has also been seen
entering Number 10.

19:56

Can the PM turn things around? It

looks unlikely
Nick Eardley
Chief political correspondent

The prime minister asked to see Sir Graham

Brady this morning to get a picture of what
her party is thinking.

The mood, from my conversations this

morning, remains bleak. It got worse aQer
Wednesday's chaos.

The question Sir Graham has to answer is

how bleak. Is it irretrievable?

The prime minister has to decide whether

she thinks she can turn it around.

At the moment, that looks unlikely.

But as we have seen in recent years,

rebellions can take a while to lead to
change.

19:55

Conservative Party chairman arrives

at Downing Street

Jake Berry has also arrived at Downing

Street.

REUTERS

Jake Berry near Downing Street

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