NEW DELHI: British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Thursday resigned as the Conservative Party leader saying she can no longer deliver the mandate she was elected on last month.
This marked the end of her tenure at 10 Downing Street in London after just 45 days in the job during which she trudged from one crisis to another.
In the process she has earned the dubious distinction of being the shortest serving British prime minister.
Here are some of the key reasons that may have led to her downfall:
Unplanned massive package of tax cutsThe central mistake of Truss’s term was a massive £45 billion ($50 billion) package of tax cuts, amid the strongest inflation in four decades that she unveiled without any independent analysis of how it would be funded. The markets reacted violently to the biggest tax giveaway in half a century amid fears it would hamper the battle against inflation and destabilize the public finances.
Pound’s tumble to all-time low Her plans for vast unfunded tax cuts crashed the pound and British bonds. Pound’s tumble to an all-time low against the dollar and the imminent threat of a rout in gilts forced the Bank of England to intervene to prevent a key part of the pensions industry from collapsing.
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Timeline: Liz Truss resigns as UK PM after 45 days
Show Captions
<p>September 5: Truss is elected Conservative Party leader by the party’s membership, winning 57% of the vote to succeed Boris Johnson. (AP photo)</p>
<p>September 6: Boris Johnson formally tenders his resignation to Queen Elizabeth and Truss is appointed prime minister. (Rueters photo)</p>
<p>September 8: Truss announces the government will cap soaring consumer energy bills for two years to cushion the economic shock of war in Ukraine, a plan expected to cost the country tens of billions of pounds. (AP photo)</p>
<p>Truss travels to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, her first foreign trip as prime minister, and has her first in person meeting with US President Joe Biden.</p>
<p>September 23: Truss’s finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng sets out a “mini-budget” which includes 45 billion pounds ($50 billion) of unfunded tax cuts and huge increases in government borrowing, sending sterling and British government bonds into freefall.</p>
<p>September 26: The central bank says it will not hesitate to change interest rates and is monitoring markets “very closely”, after the pound plunged to a record low and British bond prices collapsed in response to the new government’s financial plans. (AP photo)</p>
<p>Septembet 28: The Bank of England seeks to quell the firestorm in Britain’s bond markets, saying it will buy as much government debt as needed to restore order.<br /></p>
<p>September 29: Truss breaks her silence after nearly a week of market chaos to say she is prepared to make controversial and difficult decisions to get the economy growing. (Reuters photo)<br /></p>
<p>October 3: Truss and Kwarteng are forced to reverse a planned cut to the highest rate of income tax after turmoil in markets and opposition from many of their own Conservative lawmakers.</p>
<p>October 10: Under pressure to rebuild shattered investor confidence, Kwarteng brings forward the publication date for fiscal plans and economic forecasts to October 31, from November 23. (AP photo)</p>
<p>October 12: The government says it will not reverse its vast tax cuts or reduce public spending despite ongoing market turmoil. (AFP photo)<br /></p>
<p>October 14: Truss fires Kwarteng and acknowledges her government’s plans had gone “further and faster” than investors were expecting. She appoints Jeremy Hunt as his replacement. She also announces corporation tax will rise to 25%, reversing an earlier plan to freeze it at 19%, and says public spending will have to grow less rapidly than previously planned. (AFP photo)</p>
<p>October 17: Hunt reverses nearly all of the mini-budget and reins in the vast energy subsidy plan, saying the country needs to rebuild investor confidence. He says changes to planned tax cuts will raise 32 billion pounds and government spending cuts will also be needed. (AP photo)</p>
<p>October 19: Interior minister Suella Braverman resigns after breaking rules by sending an official document from her personal email. She also says she has serious concerns about the government and that just hoping problems would go away is not a viable approach. (AP photo)</p>
<p>October 20: Liz Truss, followed by her husband Hugh O’Leary, right, walks back into 10 Downing Street after making a statement where she announced her resignation as Prime Minister. (AP photo)</p>
Chaotic Parliament vote
A parliament vote on banning fracking descended into chaos as a desperate prime minister tried to corral her angry MPs into the voting lobbies in the House of Commons for a make-or-break ballot that she had no reason to take on. There were displays of anger in Parliament, with party whips accused of using heavy-handed tactics to gain votes. Several party MPs rebelled.
Loyalists for key jobs
Truss appointed loyalists to key jobs rather than reaching out to her opponents. And when, at the last, she tried to stamp her authority on the party, she only provoked its anger. She installed like-minded Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor of the exchequer and together they unveiled a costly scheme to cap household energy bills, but did not plan any measures to raise funds.
High-profile exits
Truss lost two key ministers in a short span of 45 days. First, she was forced to sack her finance minister and closest political ally, Kwasi Kwarteng, over a botched economic programme. Then came Suella Braverman‘s explosive exit as home secretary from Truss Cabinet amid a scathing parting attack on her boss. Experts believe Braverman’s exit was over serious differences with Truss on the country’s immigration policy.
(With inputs from agencies)
Watch Elected in 60 days, gone in 45: Liz Truss becomes shortest serving UK PM
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