British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation Thursday after six turbulent weeks in office, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history.
Truss said a new prime minister will be selected by her Conservative Party lawmakers in the coming week — but the process by which the decision will be made remains unclear at this stage. The party is bitterly divided by warring centrist and right-wing factions, and there is no clear consensus candidate to take over.
Having been formally appointed by Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 6, Truss is now by far the shortest-serving prime minister in British history and will be remembered as one of the most calamitous.
The previous holder of this record, George Canning, lasted 119 days in the early 19th century; Truss announced her resignation after 44.
A leadership contest to decide the next leader of the ruling Conservative Party, who will by default become the next prime minister, is now underway and will conclude in the next week. The opposition Labour Party called for an immediate election.
On Wednesday, Truss assured Parliament during the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session that she was a “fighter, not a quitter.”
But leading a ruling party is only possible with respect and credibility. Truss increasingly had little of either, and quit just a day later.
"I recognize that given the situation I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party," she said Thursday in a brief, unrepentant speech outside No. 10 Downing St.
"I have therefore spoken to his majesty the king to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party."
She ended the statement by saying: "I will remain as prime minister until a successor is chosen."
Attention is already turning to what happens next.
There are even calls for Boris Johnson to stage a dramatic return, just months after resigning under pressure from his own party and the public in the wake of a wave of scandals.
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