Katie Nelmes

Disclaimer: the following article was written before Rishi Sunak was announced as Prime Minister on 24 October 2022

On Thursday, Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation. This makes her the shortest serving Prime Minister in British history, serving for only 44 days. But what legacy does Truss leave behind? Will the divided Conservative Party be healed by a new leader, or will the UK face more political and economic turmoil?

Truss’s ambitions when taking office

Ultimately, Truss inherited a political crisis. The previous Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, left office in disgrace after partygate and the Chris Pincher scandal. Following numerous scandals, many MPs resigned from Johnson’s government. Eventually, the Johnson government was unable to function, leading to his subsequent resignation as Prime Minister.

Following the aftermath of Johnson’s resignation, the summer saw a drawn out Conservative leadership contest. Rishi Sunak won over 137 Conservative MPs, with Liz Truss winning 113 votes and surpassing Penny Mordaunt (with 105 votes) to make the final two.

After weeks of hustings, the Conservative Party membership elected Truss as their leader with 57.4% of the vote. This is despite Sunak warning that her economic plans for the cost-of-living crisis were a ‘fantasy’.

“It is one thing to borrow for long-term investment. It is a whole other thing to put the day-to-day bills on the country’s credit card. It is not just wrong, it is dangerous” – Rishi Sunak

What brought Liz Truss down?

A pivotal moment in Truss’ short-lived premiership was the mini-budget. The decisions to cut income and corporation tax caused great public controversy. As a result of the policies announced in the mini-budget, the Bank of England was forced to set up ‘an emergency bond-buying programme’ to stabilise the economic markets.

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng was scapegoated for the mini-budget, and he was sacked by Truss. Consequently, the Prime Minister faced criticism for remaining in post when both were equally responsible for the failures of the mini-budget. This led to a shambolic news conference which lasted only nine minutes.

Even after the new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt reversed almost all of the mini-budget, Truss continued to be criticised, including during Prime Minister’s Questions.

The appointment of Hunt was controversial, with a snap poll by YouGov showing that most people ‘don’t know’ whether Hunt would make a good Chancellor, with 21% believing he would do a ‘very bad job’. Regardless of opinions on Hunt, he was handed immense political power in his new role. It seemed as though Hunt would be taking the most important decisions as Liz Truss could no longer be trusted.

More recently, the Truss government crumbled further when Home Secretary Suella Braverman offered her resignation for breaking the ministerial code, after sharing secure information on her private email address. Braverman’s resignation letter suggested that she could cause more trouble for Truss on the backbenches.

No longer bound by cabinet loyalty, Braverman expressed ‘concerns about the direction’ of the government for breaking ‘key pledges’ to voters. Braverman also hit out against Truss remaining in post.

“Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics” –  Suella Braverman

If that wasn’t enough, government whips faced allegations of bullying after claims they ‘bullied and manhandled’ Conservative MPs so they would vote in line with the government on fracking.

Liz Truss’ government was falling apart at the seams, and she was hanging on by a thread. The party was divided and the country was faced with more instability.

What does the future hold for the Conservative Party?

Following her resignation, the Chair of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, announced there would be a streamlined leadership contest. MPs hoping to become Prime Minister would need the backing of 100 colleagues by 2pm on Monday 24th October. If multiple MPs reach the threshold, an online ballot will be sent to Conservative members.

The current favourites to succeed Truss are Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson, and Penny Moradunt. While Sunak is more popular with Conservative MPs, it is worrying that he was not as popular with the members at the last leadership election. In contrast, Boris Johnson is still popular with many members of the party, but divides opinion among MPs and the wider public.

One theory about why Liz Truss became leader is the glass cliff theory. It suggests that women and minorities are given important jobs in times of crisis when they are more likely to fail. Former adviser to Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings, went as far as to allege that Johnson intentionally backed Liz Truss’s leadership campaign because he knew she would fail, paving the way for Johnson’s comeback.

A new leader does not bring with it a fresh start. The new prime minister will inherit the same economic problems as Liz Truss, this time with a party that is even more unstable.

What are the ramifications for democracy?

There has been much criticism that the process of selecting the new Prime Minister has been largely undemocratic, with less than 1 per cent of the country able to select the Prime Minister for the second time this year. In a functioning democracy, the wider public should surely have a say in who runs the country, especially when such important decisions are to be made.

Despite calls from the opposition to hold a General Election, it is unlikely that the Conservatives will do so. For several weeks, polls have suggested that the Conservative Party would be defeated at the next General Election, with signs that Labour could win a victory on par with Tony Blair’s landslide in 1997.

The Conservative Party will be hoping that Truss’s successor can reunite the party, but there is no sign of a true unity candidate. With almost certain defeat at the next election, some Conservatives are dreaming of some time in opposition to regain their purpose. Perhaps the next Prime Minister will soon become the next leader of the opposition.

Featured image courtesy of The Conservative Party via Flickr. Image licence found here. 

Katie is a final year Politics university student and an aspiring political journalist, currently working as a Twitter Editor for Empoword Journalism!

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