Image Courtesy - Ap
London - Liz Truss quit Thursday, making her the shortest-serving leader in British history and her tenure being the most chaotic. The now a divided ruling party must quickly find a leader who can unify its warring factions.
So, the big question is who will replace Liz Truss?
The Conservative Party, which holds a big majority in parliament, need not call a nationwide election for another two years. However, they are now tasked with electing a new leader by Oct. 28 - Britain's fifth prime minister in six years.
That contest is likely to pit former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, who lost to Truss in the last leadership contest; House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt; Defense Secretary Ben Wallace; and even Boris Johnson, the former prime minister ousted in July over a series of ethics scandals.
Organisers said that any candidate would need the backing of 100 lawmakers, and that if only one candidate passes that threshold by 2 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Monday they will automatically become prime minister. If two candidates remain, party members will get an online vote.
Sunak, the former Goldman Sachs analyst who became finance minister just as the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Europe, has been proven right in his warnings that Truss's fiscal plan threatened the economy. However, he remains deeply unpopular with some Conservatives after he helped to trigger the summer rebellion against Johnson.
Penny Mordaunt, a popular former defence minister, could also run, with other possible hopefuls such as Suella Braverman, the interior minister who quit on Wednesday, and trade minister Kemi Badenoch unlikely to reach the 100 nominations.
The sight of yet another unpopular prime minister making a resignation speech in Downing Street - and the start of a new leadership race - underscores just how volatile British politics has become since the 2016 vote to leave the European Union.
One of the most contentious issues facing the Conservatives is how they elect a new leader, after the party's 170,000 members chose Truss over the wishes of its elected lawmakers at Westminster.
Speaking outside the door of her Number 10 office, Truss accepted that she had lost the faith of her party and would step down next week. Financial markets breathed a sigh of relief after her resignation.
Allied leaders said they would continue to work with her successor and emphasised the importance of stability.
New finance minister Jeremy Hunt is now racing to find tens of billions of pounds of savings to try to reassure investors and rebuild Britain's fiscal reputation.
With the economy heading into recession and inflation running at a 40-year high, millions of Britons are struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.
-AP/Reuters