The Prime Minister, Liz Truss, has made her final speech in Downing Street before leaving to pay a visit to His Majesty King Charles III at Buckingham Palace to intimate her resignation. She becomes the UK Prime Minister who has served the shortest term in history.
Rishi Sunak will become the 57th Prime Minister when he visits the King shortly afterwards.
In common with her predecessor, Liz Truss made no apology for the period of her leadership. She said: “It has been a huge honour to be Prime Minister of this great country.
In particular, to lead the nation in mourning the death of Her Late Majesty The Queen after 70 years of service,
and welcoming the accession of His Majesty King Charles III.
In just a short period, this government has acted urgently and decisively on the side of hardworking families and businesses.
We reversed the National Insurance increase.
We helped millions of households with their energy bills and helped thousands of businesses avoid bankruptcy.
We are taking back our energy independence…
…so we are never again beholden to global market fluctuations or malign foreign powers.
From my time as Prime Minister, I am more convinced than ever we need to be bold and confront the challenges that we face.
As the Roman philosopher Seneca wrote: “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”
We simply cannot afford to be a low growth country where the government takes up an increasing share of our national wealth…
and where there are huge divides between different parts of our country.
We need to take advantage of our Brexit freedoms to do things differently.
This means delivering more freedom for our own citizens and restoring power in democratic institutions.
It means lower taxes, so people keep more of the money they earn.
It means delivering growth that will lead to more job security, higher wages and greater opportunities for our children and grandchildren.
Democracies must be able to deliver for their own people…
We must be able to outcompete autocratic regimes, where power lies in the hands of a few.
And now more than ever we must support Ukraine in their brave fight against Putin’s aggression.
Ukraine must prevail.
And we must continue to strengthen our nation’s defences.
That is what I have been striving to achieve… and I wish Rishi Sunak every success, for the good of our country.
I want to thank Hugh, Frances, Liberty, my family and friends, and all the team at No10 for their love, friendship and support.
I also want to thank my protection team.
I look forward to spending more time in my constituency, and continuing to serve South West Norfolk from the backbenches.
Our country continues to battle through a storm.
But I believe in Britain.
I believe in the British people.
And I know that brighter days lie ahead.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
