Liz Truss Resigns, Becomes The Shortest Serving Prime Minister In History

New UK PM Liz Truss, the former oil economist for Shell, tendered her resignation on Thursday, just days after putting forward a budget that wreaked havoc in the financial markets and was ill-received by her own party.

The budget sent the pound plunging and led to a government debt sell-off at such rates that pension funds were at risk of going under.

Leading up to the Prime Minister’s resignation, 17 MPs officially called for Truss to step down.

Liz Truss campaigned on the prospect of increasing oil drilling in the North Sea and increasing nuclear power. Her number one priority was to deal “with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long-term issues we have on energy supply.”

Truss lifted the UK’s 2019 ban on fracking in September.

The calls for Truss to step down also come just a day after a government vote on the controversial practice of fracking. While the government managed to defeat a motion to ban fracking once again, 40 MPs either missed the vote or voted against their party—although largely in line with their party mandate on fracking.

The fracking vote, held on Wednesday, resulted in the chief whip announcing her resignation and leaving the chamber prior to the vote, with Truss chasing after her—and also missing the vote.

The resignation follows Interior Minister Suella Braverman’s resignation, just a week after the Prime Minister fired Kwazi Kwarteng for the financial turmoil caused by the government’s experimental mini-budget.

The rising cost of energy in the UK and the threat of looming blackouts this winter have catapulted energy into the limelight. Truss managed to hold onto her position for just six weeks—the shortest term length of any Prime Minister in the UK in history.

An election to choose her successor will be held within a week.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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