Liz Truss has resigned as leader of the Conservative Party, and announced that a new leader will be elected in the coming week - meaning the UK will have its third prime minister in the space of some three months.
Truss announced her resignation outside 10 Downing Street.
The announcement makes her the shortest serving prime minister in UK history. In this she joins her former chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng, who became the shortest serving in his role after the disastrous Mini-Budget outlined in September, which saw the cost of UK government borrowing soar.
Truss said that she had been unable to deliver on the mandate that saw her elected leader of the Conservative Party over the summer, and which led her to become prime minister.
The leader of the UK's main opposition party in Parliament has already demanded a general election. However, analysts suggest that with the Conservative Party polling so low that the Labour Party could end up with a 300+ majority if an election were held today, the preferred option for the Conservatives will be to not agree to the demand.
Data from the FT indicates that the yield on 10-year UK government bonds was heading downwards earlier in the day - continuing a trend since a spike in yields on the asset class following the so called Mini-Budget. Since then, both the Bank of England, on monetary policy, and the chancellor in office after Kwarteng, Jeremy Hunt, on fiscal policy, have issued statements suggesting that fighting inflation and restricting government spending are top of agenda.
The constitutional arrangements in the UK mean that a new leader of the Conservative Party can become the next prime minister without a general election. However, political analysts point out that this would mean yet another government with a mandate from the members of the Conservative Party, but not a mandate from the full electorate through a general election.
