Dina Mahmoud (London)
Less than a month and a half after becoming prime minister in Britain, Liz Truss announced her resignation from her position, and from the leadership of the ruling “Conservative” party, following the widening area of rebellion against her by her party members in Parliament, and accusations of adopting floundering economic policies, thus becoming She has the shortest tenure of any prime minister in the history of the United Kingdom.
In a brief statement, delivered yesterday in front of the government headquarters in 10 Downing Street in central London, Truss said: “She has notified King Charles III of her resignation from the leadership of the ruling party, but she will remain at the head of the government, until a new leader is elected for the Conservatives during the week. Next, via an internal ballot.
Terrace indicated, in a televised statement that did not last more than 3 minutes, that she was chosen as prime minister, in the midst of “a state of widespread instability, both at the economic level (in Britain) and in the world”, against the backdrop of low growth rates in the Kingdom. The United States, and the consequences of the Ukrainian crisis, which has been going on since late February.
She added that she realized that the current circumstances would not allow her to “accomplish the task” entrusted to her by the party, when she was elected in early September to succeed former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who in turn was forced to announce his resignation in the middle of this year, under pressure from his party, On the impact of several political and economic crises.
In an implicit reference to what she witnessed in the past few days of mounting calls from Conservative MPs in Parliament for her to resign, after adjusting her financial plan several times in a matter of weeks, the dismissal of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the resignation of the Minister of the Interior, she said: “She realized in light of the (current) situation. » It is not able to achieve the desired changes, thus opening the door to choosing a prime minister who will be the third for the United Kingdom in less than a year.
Minutes after Truss made her statement, the opposition Labor and Liberal Democrats rushed to call an early election, which was supported by Scotland’s local leader, Nicola Sturgeon.
Labor leader Keir Starmer stressed that he is able to form a “stable government” to confront the deepening economic crisis, and implement plans that will stimulate growth, saying that the “Conservative” party, which has ruled Britain for 12 years, has failed all these years and “has shown that it is no longer He has a mandate to stay in power,” and that the British people deserve better.
Starmer criticized what the resigned Prime Minister announced, that the new leader of her party, who will lead the government by extension, will be elected internally, as happened with her herself, less than 45 days ago.
Although Conservative MPs have said that the option of calling an early general election may have to be studied, the party is not obligated to go this way, given that it enjoys a comfortable parliamentary majority, thanks to its landslide victory in the 2019 elections, after it won 365 seats out of 650, comprising the House of Commons.
This will make the opposition need to win the support of the majority of the ruling party’s deputies in Parliament, if it wants to press for legislative elections before their due date in 2024. British opposition leaders justify these demands by saying that the entire Conservative Party has lost its credibility, and that British political history, The selection of two successive prime ministers was not witnessed by an internal vote, without the electorate. Hunt pre-empted the start of the competition for the leadership of the ruling party, by declaring that he did not intend to enter it, at a time when British media reported that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who handed over his position to a terrace on the sixth of last September, may intend to return to the political scene, from The gateway to candidacy for the leadership of the “conservatives”.
Other figures on the table include Conservative politicians who had attempted to seize the party leadership in the internal elections that followed Johnson’s announcement that he would step down last July, such as Penny Mordaunt, the former trade secretary and current leader of the Conservative majority in the House of Commons, and current Defense Secretary Ben Wallace. , next to former Treasury Secretary Richie Sunak, whom Terrace narrowly beat, in the last internal ballot, to obtain the leadership of the “Conservatives” and the prime ministership.
Despite the atmosphere of political turmoil spread by the resignation of Trace, the financial markets in Britain witnessed positive reactions to this step, as the value of the pound rose slightly against the US dollar, after it had fallen to its lowest levels a few weeks ago, following the announcement of the resigned prime minister’s plan “ The “mini-budget” that included tax exemptions in order to counter inflation rates and the high cost of living at the present time.
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