British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Thursday announced her resignation just six crisis-filled weeks after taking office, becoming the shortest-lived premier in UK history.
The Conservative party vowed a rapid election to have a new leader chosen by October 28, avoiding the drawn-out contest in which Truss defeated Rishi Sunak over the summer following Boris Johnson's own resignation.
Truss admitted she "cannot deliver the mandate" on which she was elected, after her right-wing platform of tax cuts disintegrated and as many Conservative MPs revolted.
Labour leader Keir Starmer, whose opposition party has surged in opinion polls on the back of Truss's short, eventful tenure, demanded a general election "now".
"This is not just a soap opera at the top of the Tory party," he said, warning of "huge damage" to the UK economy, although the pound surged against the dollar after Truss's dramatic announcement.
Speaking outside 10 Downing Street, Truss said she would stay on as prime minister until a successor is chosen to serve as Tory leader.
"We've agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week," she said, after senior backbench MP Graham Brady told her the game was up.
"This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plan and maintain our country's economic stability and national security."
Without going into details, Brady told reporters that the new leader would be in place by Friday next week, in time for finance minister Jeremy Hunt to deliver a crucial budget statement on October 31.
Brady's statement suggested the party could find a way of bypassing the Tory rank and file who elected Truss, in the face of warnings by Sunak that her debt-fuelled programme threatened higher inflation and market turmoil.-AFP
