Truss is now the shortest-lived Prime Minister in British history.
Another day, another British Prime Minister on the way. In a country sick to death of calling events “unprecedented,” the population is struggling to find the words for the political chaos it’s weathered over the last few months, weeks, days, and hours. We’ve whipped through the lowlights and attempted to put together a snapshot of what (might) be coming next.
A record-breaking turnaround
On July 7, Boris Johnson stood outside Number 10 Downing Street and announced his decision to step down as British Prime Minister. At last — and in the minds of many, far too late — his authority had buckled under the weight of scandals that shook the country to its core and underlined his appalling deficiencies as a leader.
Yesterday, just 105 days after her predecessor, Liz Truss, stood outside Number 10 Downing Street and briefly, sullenly announced her decision to step down as Prime Minister. At last — and in the minds of many, far too late — her authority had buckled under the weight of catastrophic misjudgments that shook the country to its core and underlined her appalling deficiencies as a leader.
Liz Truss now holds the unenviable record of being the shortest-serving Prime Minister in British history. The length of her 44-day tenure has been compared to Boris Johnson’s post-resignation summer holiday, her own leadership bid, the number of days magician David Blaine spent hanging in a transparent box over the bank of the River Thames, and the shelf-life of one specific lettuce, which was broadcast live on YouTube by a British tabloid as Truss’s authority crumbled. (Cue millions racing to quip: “Was it her financial plan that doomed her? No, that was just the tip of the iceberg!”)
Perhaps most embarrassing of all, after Truss took office in September, a pair of Westminster journalists speed-wrote a much-anticipated book, Out Of The Blue: The Inside Story of Liz Truss and Her Extraordinary Rise To Power. It was due to be out in time for Christmas. Unfortunately for those writers, Truss was out long before then.
A nation left in tatters
The country Truss leaves behind is, incredibly, in an even worse state than it was after Johnson stepped down in the summer. As Katie Couric Media reported earlier this week, Truss’s financial plan, which her short-lived former Chancellor (finance minister) Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled on September 23, saw the pound sink to a record low against the dollar, caused the cost of borrowing (and therefore, of mortgages) to skyrocket, saw inflation hit a record 40-year high, and now means that Britons face one of its toughest winters in recent memory.
It was egregiously clear that Truss had no understanding of how her budget might affect the markets, and she repeatedly made glaring errors when she attempted to explain how the British economy works.
For millions, record energy prices coupled with the dire financial situation mean that they will now be unable to heat their homes — if they’re even able to keep them — and won’t be able to buy anywhere near enough food over the coming months.
Crisis after crisis
The impact of Truss’s budget was so disastrous that she was forced to fire Kwarteng, a particularly close ally, on October 14. Later that day, she replaced him as Chancellor with Jeremy Hunt, formerly one of her rivals for the Tory leadership. Hunt immediately reversed almost the entirety of the Truss/Kwarteng budget in the name of stabilizing the wrecked economy. This was not enough to appease either the country or Truss’s own government, and calls for her to leave continued thick and fast from all sides.
After limping through Prime Minister’s Questions — a weekly showdown between the PM and the leader of the opposition that’s broadcast live — on October 19, and insisting that she was a “fighter, not a quitter,” Truss received another blow.
Her home secretary, Suella Braverman, resigned after breaking the ministerial code by sending an official document from a personal email address. In her scathing resignation letter, Braverman made it clear that she was throwing down the gauntlet, writing none-too-subtly:
“Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics. I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign.”
She continued by describing “serious concerns” she had about the direction of Truss’s government, and its breaking of “key pledges.” Braverman’s departure made her the shortest-serving home secretary since World War 2. Truss replaced her with Grant Shapps, who she’d fired as transport secretary just six weeks previously.
Pandamonium in Parliament
The final straw for Truss’s leadership came on the night of October 19, when bedlam erupted in the House of Commons over a vote on fracking. Many Conservatives are against fracking, but they were told that the vote was being treated as a vote of confidence in the government and the Prime Minister — meaning that if they didn’t turn up and vote with the government, they could be booted out of the parliamentary party.
Opposition MPs claimed to have seen Conservatives being “manhandled” in the voting lobbies, with MP Anna McMorrin tweeting that she’d seen one “in tears.” Conservatives who did not vote were warned that they would face disciplinary action. Incredibly, it seemed for a while that Liz Truss herself hadn’t voted, as she’d been seen chasing after MP Wendy Morton, who was threatening to resign her position as Conservative chief whip. (Whips are responsible for maintaining discipline in their party.) Ultimately it was revealed that Truss had voted and that Morton had resigned, then unresigned.
One apoplectic Conservative MP had this to say amidst the shambles:
“To be honest, this whole affair is inexcusable… As a Tory MP of 17 years… I think it is a shambles and a disgrace… I am livid… All those people who put Liz Truss in Number 10, I hope it was worth it… to sit around the Cabinet table. Because the damage they have done to our party is extraordinary.
I’ve had enough, I’ve had enough of talentless people putting the tick in the right box, not because it’s in the national interest, but because it’s in their own personal interest to achieve ministerial positions…. A lot of my colleagues are wondering, as many of their constituents are wondering, how they’re going to pay their mortgages.”
The following morning, Sir Graham Brady, the leader of the Conservative committee which oversees the election of party leaders, visited Truss at Number 10. Shortly afterward, she resigned.
So, is Boris coming back?
The Conservative party is still in power, so whoever they choose as their next leader will automatically become Britain’s next Prime Minister. It’s going to be an extremely fast turnaround, with the winner to be announced next Friday. That person will be decided via two rounds of voting, the first among Conservative MPs, who will pick the final two candidates, and the second among the wider Conservative party membership.
The general public will have no say in choosing their next Prime Minister, which to many seems extraordinary considering that polling suggests the opposition Labour Party, which is led by Keir Starmer, would now win a general election by a landslide.
Likely Conservative leadership candidates include Truss’s original final-round rival, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, MP Penny Mordaunt, member favorite Kemi Badenoch, and, incredibly, Boris Johnson, who has been on holiday in the Dominican Republic for the last couple of weeks. Tellingly, he’s now rushing home.
There are a few theories about whether or not Johnson will actually run. As a former PM, he can command enormous fees for speaking at events — and make double in 30 minutes what he’d earn in a year in office. Many have pointed out the ex-PM’s famous vanity, which could mean that he won’t throw his hat into the ring unless he’s absolutely certain he’ll win.
The general consensus is that if Johnson made it to the final two, he’d nab the member vote. In order to get there, however, he’d have to secure 100 MP votes — a potentially tall order, given his slightly dicier standing in Parliament.
Another theory circling Westminster is that Boris will feint a run as a “kingmaker” — that is, join the race for the MP vote stage so as to split the ballot between the other candidates, and ensure his favorite’s success. Of course, there’s always a danger that if he does, he’ll “accidentally” win.
The kicker? Johnson is still facing a parliamentary probe into whether or not he misled Parliament over the “partygate” scandal, during which it was revealed that Number 10 had, in his full knowledge, hosted numerous illegal lockdown gatherings. The scandal was the prelude to his own political downfall, but after Liz Truss’s hopeless stewardship, the bar for what the Conservative Party deems acceptable in its leaders has never been so low.
