October 20, 2022 (GMN) - British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced she was stepping down, just over six weeks after taking the Conservative Party reins as a leader.
Truss's short tenure was marked by shock over the government's mini-budget, which roiled British markets, and internal party dissension leading to cabinet departures and backbenchers expressing a lack of confidence in their new leader.
Truss said that "given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party."
Another Conservative leadership contest will take place within a week, Truss said in a short statement outside the prime minister's residence at 10 Downing Street. She will stay on until then.
It will be the fourth such contest for the party since David Cameron stepped down in the wake of a referendum that saw British voters support an exit from the European Union.
