History UsefulNotes / LizTruss

On 20 October, Truss announced her resignation, and officially resigned on 25 October, after 49 days in office, becoming the [[ShortLivedLeadership shortest-serving]] British prime minister in history, beating UsefulNotes/GeorgeCanning's record of 119 days.[[note]]Canning's premiership ended because he died from tuberculosis, and his own immediate successor, [[UsefulNotes/ViscountGoderich Frederick J. Robinson, The Viscount Goderich]], served for 144 days, the shortest tenure for a PM who resigned.[[/note]] For comparison's sake, Truss served only 19 days longer than the shortest-serving president of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates, UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison (who died of pneumonia and/or a gastrointestinal infection). Among non-caretaker prime ministers in other countries that copied the Westminster regime, she outlasted Arthur Fadden (briefly UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}'s prime minister in 1941) by ten days; Robert Stout (who was UsefulNotes/NewZealand's prime minister for part of 1884) by 36 days; and came 19 days shy of the UsefulNotes/{{Canad|a}}ian record for brevity set by Charles Tupper's 1896 ministry. She is also the first PM who never led their party in a general election since UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain (who served from 1937 to 1940).

* After the magazine ''Magazine/TheEconomist'' started a leader by commenting that the mini-budget had destroyed her Government after barely a week in power, comparing that timespan with "the shelf-life of a lettuce", the British tabloid newspaper ''Daily Star'' [[LiteralMetaphor took it literally]] and responded to the increasingly tumultuous nature of her tenure by livestreaming an actual head of iceberg lettuce and seeing [[InanimateCompetitor if it would expire before she left office]]. ''The lettuce won.'' The ''Daily Star'' responded to Truss' resignation by decorating the lettuce in her likeness and playing celebratory music. The lettuce [[MemeticMutation gained enough traction in the media]] that Labour Party MP Chris Bryant remarked during a news appearance that "the lettuce might as well be running the country."

* After the magazine ''Magazine/TheEconomist'' started a leader by commenting that the mini-budget had destroyed her Government after barely a week in power, comparing that timespan with "the shelf-life of a lettuce", the British tabloid newspaper ''Daily Star'' took it literally and responded to the increasingly tumultuous nature of her tenure by livestreaming an actual head of iceberg lettuce and seeing [[InanimateCompetitor if it would expire before she left office]]. ''The lettuce won.'' The ''Daily Star'' responded to Truss' resignation by decorating the lettuce in her likeness and playing celebratory music. The lettuce [[MemeticMutation gained enough traction in the media]] that Labour Party MP Chris Bryant remarked during a news appearance that "the lettuce might as well be running the country."

In the 2010 election, Liz Truss entered Parliament for South West Norfolk, following the retirement of MP Christopher Fraser. She was actually selected twice for the seat, beating five other candidates to become the prospective parliamentary candidate and then winning again after some members of the local Conservative Association found out she'd had an affair with MP Mark Field (not actually a secret -- it was allegedly the first thing that came up when people searched for her name online) and got the association to rerun the internal election. Two years later, now-Prime Minister Cameron appointed her to her first ministerial position, as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Childcare and Education.

In 2014 she became Environment Secretary. In this role she made a much ridiculed speech at the 2014 Conservative Party Conference where she called it a disgrace Britain imported two-thirds of its cheese and that she would be opening new pork markets in Beijing.

After Theresa May [[PyrrhicVictory "won"]] the 2017 election, she reassigned Truss to be chief secretary to the Treasury, which was seen as a demotion. In the 2019 leadership election, she supported UsefulNotes/BorisJohnson. After he won, he promoted her to international trade secretary. In 2021 Truss was promoted again, to foreign secretary, with people talking about her as a prime minister in waiting.

The Queen's death on her second full day in office caught the new government and much of the public by surprise. Truss was making a Commons statement about energy bills when the news broke that Her Majesty was under "medical supervision", a euphemism that the media at large took correctly to mean that she was on her deathbed. At least one new minister turned up at their new department expecting a welcome and were instead told that they had a meeting in thirty minutes that would be discussing the implementation of Operation London Bridge i.e. the plans for the Queen's death.

Truss was the fifteenth and final PM of Elizabeth's reign and the first PM to serve under UsefulNotes/CharlesIII; she would in fact reveal his chosen regnal name in her address from Downing Street on 8 September.[[note]]As a demonstration of just how long Elizabeth's reign was, Truss was born in 1975, just over 100 years after the birth of Elizabeth's first PM, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, in 1874.[[/note]]

As prime minister, Truss inherited a cost-of-living crisis which she and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng,[[note]]The first Black man to hold the role, and, among other things, a former winner of ''Series/UniversityChallenge''.[[/note]] attempted on 23 September 2022 to mitigate with a "mini-budget", which was heavily criticised for largely consisting of tax cuts for the wealthy and funding them with government borrowing. The result globally, however, was far more extreme: the pound ''plunged'' in value against the US dollar, reaching an all-time low within days, collapsing the value of sterling for the foreseeable future, despite an attempted intervention by the Bank of England.[[note]]On 22 September, the day before the "mini-budget", £1 was worth $1.13. By the 23rd, it fell to $1.08. The next Monday, 26 September, £1 fell to be worth just under $1.04.[[/note]] The government eventually U-turned on the tax cut for the highest income bracket, effectively killing its own authority.

That authority crumbled even further on 14 October, when Kwarteng[[note]]Who by now had gained the nickname "Kami-Kwasi".[[/note]] was sacked, rendering him the second shortest-serving Chancellor in British history.[[note]]He was beaten only by Iain Macleod, who died after a month in office in 1970; Kwarteng holds the dubious distinction of fastest sacking.[[/note]] He was replaced with Jeremy Hunt, which was accompanied by ''another'' U-turn, this time on the reversal of corporation tax rises.

This was followed by, on 19 October, the resignation of her home secretary[[note]]For non-Brits, the equivalent of an interior minister, or in the US, the Homeland Security secretary.[[/note]] Suella Braverman after sending official documents using her personal email address. Later that day, there were chaotic scenes in Parliament during a vote on fracking, with mass confusion among Conservative [=MPs=] over whether it had been designated a confidence vote (meaning that voting against Truss's government -- which supported fracking, counter to the manifesto under which they'd been elected -- would get [=MPs=] thrown out of the party), reports of further resignations (which turned out to be inaccurate), and claims of bullying and intimidation from government ministers. This led to Creator/{{ITV}} News anchor Tom Bradby [[https://youtu.be/e-AgqBHjhA8 openly questioning what was going on]].

On 20 October, Truss announced her resignation, and officially resigned on 25 October, after 49 days in office, becoming the [[ShortLivedLeadership shortest-serving]] British prime minister in history, beating UsefulNotes/GeorgeCanning's record of 119 days.[[note]]Canning's premiership ended because he died from tuberculosis, and his own immediate successor, [[UsefulNotes/ViscountGoderich Frederick J. Robinson, The Viscount Goderich]], served for 144 days, the shortest tenure for a PM who resigned.[[/note]] For comparison's sake, Truss served only 19 days longer than the shortest-serving U.S. president, UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison (who had the excuse of dying of pneumonia and/or a gastrointestinal infection). She is also the first PM who never led their party in a general election since UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain (who served from 1937 to 1940).

There is a serious argument to be made to rank her brief premiership down amongst the worst in British history. Having taken office with the British economy in a moribund state and political tension at an all-time high, the actions she did have time to take sank the nation's fortunes and sowed chaos and social unrest that the succeeding government has struggled to quell.

On 20 October, Truss announced her resignation, and officially resigned on 25 October, after 50 days in office, becoming the [[ShortLivedLeadership shortest-serving]] British prime minister in history, beating UsefulNotes/GeorgeCanning's record of 119 days.[[note]]Canning's premiership ended because he died from tuberculosis, and his own immediate successor, [[UsefulNotes/ViscountGoderich Frederick J. Robinson, The Viscount Goderich]], served for 144 days, the shortest tenure for a PM who resigned.[[/note]] For comparison's sake, Truss served only 20 days longer than the shortest-serving U.S. president, UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison (who had the excuse of dying of pneumonia and/or a gastrointestinal infection). She is also the first PM who never led their party in a general election since UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain (who served from 1937 to 1940).

Liz Truss has had a very varied political career. While reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Merton College, Oxford, she was president of Oxford University Liberal Democrats and a member of the national executive committee of Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (LDYS). However, the same year she graduated, 1996, she joined the Conservative Party. Regardless, she has been considered a rather liberal Conservative, especially on economic issues.

During the 2016 Brexit referendum, Truss supported Remain. When the Leave campaign won, causing Cameron to resign as PM, his fellow Remainer and immediate successor UsefulNotes/TheresaMay appointed her as the first female Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary (the positions go together). This was criticised due to Truss' lack of legal expertise and experience. The former Attorney General Dominic Grieve and the Criminal Bar Association criticised her for failing to support the judiciary and the principle of judicial independence more robustly, after three judges of the Divisional Court came under attack from politicians and from the ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers Daily Mail]]'' for ruling against the government in ''R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union''.

After Theresa May [[PyrrhicVictory "won"]] the 2017 election, she reassigned Truss to be Chief Secretary to the Treasury, which was seen as a demotion. In the 2019 leadership election, she supported UsefulNotes/BorisJohnson. After he won, he promoted her to International Trade Secretary. In 2021 Truss was promoted again, to Foreign Secretary, with people talking about her as a prime minister in waiting.

The Queen's death occurring on her second full day on office caught the new government and much of the public by surprise. Truss was making a Commons statement about energy bills when the news broke that Her Majesty was under "medical supervision", a euphemism that the media at large took correctly to mean that she was on her deathbed. At least one new minister turned up at their new department expecting a welcome and were instead told that they had a meeting in thirty minutes that would be discussing the implementation of Operation London Bridge i.e. the plans for the Queen's death.

As prime minister, Truss inherited a cost-of-living crisis which she and her Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng,[[note]]The first Black man to hold the role, and, among other things, a former winner of ''Series/UniversityChallenge''.[[/note]] attempted on 23 September 2022 to mitigate with a "mini-budget", which was heavily criticised for largely consisting of tax cuts for the wealthy and funding them with government borrowing. The result globally, however, was far more extreme: the pound ''plunged'' in value against the US dollar, reaching an all-time low within days, collapsing the value of sterling for the foreseeable future, despite an attempted intervention by the Bank of England.[[note]]On 22 September, the day before the "mini-budget", £1 was worth $1.13. By the 23rd, it fell to $1.08. The next Monday, 26 September, £1 fell to be worth just under $1.04.[[/note]] The government eventually U-turned on the tax cut for the highest income bracket, effectively killing its own authority.

This was followed by, on 19 October, the resignation of her Home Secretary[[note]]For non-Brits, the equivalent of an interior minister, or in the US, the Homeland Security Secretary.[[/note]] Suella Braverman after sending official documents using her personal email address. Later that day, there were chaotic scenes in Parliament during a vote on fracking, with mass confusion among Conservative [=MPs=] over whether it had been designated a confidence vote (meaning that voting against Truss's government -- which supported fracking, counter to the manifesto under which they'd been elected -- would get [=MPs=] thrown out of the party), reports of further resignations (which turned out to be inaccurate), and claims of bullying and intimidation from government ministers. This led to Creator/{{ITV}} News anchor Tom Bradby [[https://youtu.be/e-AgqBHjhA8 openly questioning what was going on]].

On 24 October, with other aspiring candidates Johnson and Penny Mordaunt having dropped out of the Tory leadership contest, Rishi Sunak was elected leader of the party and, therefore, Truss' successor as Prime Minister.

* After the magazine ''Magazine/TheEconomist'' started a leader by commenting that the mini-budget had destroyed her Government after barely a week in power, comparing that timespan with "the shelf-life of a lettuce", the British tabloid newspaper ''Daily Star'' took it literally and responded to the increasingly tumultuous nature of her tenure by livestreaming an actual head of iceberg lettuce and seeing if it would expire before she left office. ''The lettuce won.'' The ''Daily Star'' responded to Truss' resignation by decorating the lettuce in her likeness and playing celebratory music. The lettuce [[MemeticMutation gained enough traction in the media]] that Labour Party MP Chris Bryant remarked during a news appearance that "the lettuce might as well be running the country."

On 20 October, Truss announced her resignation, and officially resigned on 25 October, after 50 days in office, becoming the [[ShortLivedLeadership shortest-serving]] British prime minister in history, beating UsefulNotes/GeorgeCanning's record of 119 days.[[note]]Canning's premiership ended because he died from tuberculosis, and his own immediate successor, [[UsefulNotes/ViscountGoderich Frederick J. Robinson, The Viscount Goderich]], served for 144 days, the shortest tenure for a PM who resigned.[[/note]] For comparison's sake, Truss served only 20 days longer than the shortest-serving U.S. president, UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison (who had the excuse of dying of pneumonia and/or a gastrointestinal infection). She is also the first PM who never led their party in a general election since UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain (who served from 1937 to 1940). On 24 October, with other aspiring candidates Johnson and Penny Mordaunt having dropped out of the Tory leadership contest, Rishi Sunak was elected leader of the party and, therefore, Truss' successor as Prime Minister.

On 20 October, Truss announced her resignation, and officially resigned on 25 October, after 50 days in office, becoming the [[ShortLivedLeadership shortest-serving]] British prime minister in history, beating UsefulNotes/GeorgeCanning's record of 119 days.[[note]]Canning's premiership ended because he died from tuberculosis, and his own immediate successor, [[UsefulNotes/ViscountGoderich Frederick J. Robinson, The Viscount Goderich]], served for 144 days, the shortest tenure for a PM who resigned.[[/note]] For comparison's sake, Truss served only 20 days longer than the shortest-serving U.S. president, UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison. She is also the first PM who never led their party in a general election since UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain (who served from 1937 to 1940). On 24 October, with other aspiring candidates Johnson and Penny Mordaunt having dropped out of the Tory leadership contest, Rishi Sunak was elected leader of the party and, therefore, Truss' successor as Prime Minister.

Boris Johnson was forced to resign on 7 July 2022, due to the mass resignation of various members of his government as a result of the fallout of the Chris Pincher scandal, over Johnson having appointed Pincher to be a Deputy Chief Whip[[note]]A senior government post responsible for managing party discipline and enforcing the authority of the party leadership.[[/note]] despite knowing of outstanding allegations of sexual harassment against him. Truss announced her intention to stand, having stayed on in government. Though UsefulNotes/RishiSunak, the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer, looked the early favourite (he won every preliminary ballot of Conservative [=MPs=]), much of the party membership disliked him and blamed him for Johnson's fall, as he had been one of the first members to resign. In a competitive leadership race, Truss became one of the final two members, which then went to the party membership. She won the Conservative Party leadership on 5 September 2022, thus becoming prime minister-designate, the third woman to hold the office after UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher and Theresa May. She was appointed prime minister the following day by Queen UsefulNotes/ElizabethII, who died only two days later. Truss was the fifteenth and final PM of Elizabeth's reign and the first PM to serve under UsefulNotes/CharlesIII.[[note]]As a demonstration of just how long Elizabeth's reign was, Truss was born in 1975, just over 100 years after the birth of Elizabeth's first PM, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, in 1874.[[/note]]

Boris Johnson was forced to resign on 7 July 2022, due to the mass resignation of various members of his government as a result of the fallout of the Chris Pincher scandal, over Johnson having appointed Pincher to be a Deputy Chief Whip[[note]]a senior government post responsible for managing party discipline and enforcing the authority of the party leadership[[/note]] despite knowing of outstanding allegations of sexual harassment against him. Truss announced her intention to stand, having stayed on in government. Though UsefulNotes/RishiSunak, the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer, looked the early favourite (he won every preliminary ballot of Conservative [=MPs=]), much of the party membership disliked him and blamed him for Johnson's fall, as he had been one of the first members to resign. In a competitive leadership race, Truss became one of the final two members, which then went to the party membership. She won the Conservative Party leadership on 5 September 2022, thus becoming prime minister-designate, the third woman to hold the office after UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher and Theresa May. She was appointed prime minister the following day by Queen UsefulNotes/ElizabethII, who died only two days later. Truss was the fifteenth and final PM of Elizabeth's reign and the first PM to serve under UsefulNotes/CharlesIII.[[note]]As a demonstration of just how long Elizabeth's reign was, Truss was born in 1975, just over 100 years after the birth of Elizabeth's first PM, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, in 1874.[[/note]]

During the 2016 Brexit referendum, Truss supported Remain. When the Leave campaign won, causing Cameron to resign as PM, his fellow Remainer and immediate successor UsefulNotes/TheresaMay appointed her as the first female Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary (the positions go together). This was criticised due to Truss' lack of legal expertise. The former Attorney General Dominic Grieve and the Criminal Bar Association criticised her for failing to support the judiciary and the principle of judicial independence more robustly, after three judges of the Divisional Court came under attack from politicians and from the ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers Daily Mail]]'' for ruling against the government in ''R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union''.

As prime minister, Truss inherited a cost-of-living crisis which she and her Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng,[[note]]The first Black man to hold the role, and, among other things, a former winner of ''Series/UniversityChallenge''.[[/note]] attempted on 23 September 2022 to mitigate with a "mini-budget", which was heavily criticised for largely consisting of tax cuts for the wealthy and funding them with government borrowing. The result globally, however, was far more extreme: the pound ''plunged'' in value against the US dollar, reaching an all-time low within days, collapsing the value of sterling for the foreseeable future, despite an attempted intervention by the Bank of England.[[note]]On 22 September, the day before the "mini-budget", £1 was worth $1.13, on 23 September, it had fallen to $1.08, and £1 being worth just under $1.04 on 26 September.[[/note]] The government eventually U-turned on the tax cut for the highest income bracket, effectively killing its own authority.

* After the magazine ''The Economist'' started a leader by commenting that the mini-budget had destroyed her Government after barely a week in power, comparing that timespan with "the shelf-life of a lettuce", the British tabloid newspaper ''Daily Star'' took it literally and responded to the increasingly tumultuous nature of her tenure by livestreaming an actual head of iceberg lettuce and seeing if it would expire before she left office; ''the lettuce won''. The paper responded to Truss' resignation by decorating the lettuce in her likeness and playing celebratory music. The lettuce [[AscendedMeme gained enough traction in the media]] that Labour Party MP Chris Bryant remarked during a news appearance that "the lettuce might as well be running the country."

* After the magazine ''The Economist'' started a leader by commenting that the mini-budget had destroyed her Government after barely a week in power, comparing that timespan with "the shelf-life of a lettuce", the British tabloid newspaper ''Daily Star'' took it literally and responded to the increasingly tumultuous nature of her tenure by livestreaming an actual head of lettuce and seeing if it would expire before she left office; ''the lettuce won''. The paper responded to Truss' resignation by decorating the lettuce in her likeness and playing celebratory music. The lettuce [[AscendedMeme gained enough traction in the media]] that Labour Party MP Chris Bryant remarked during a news appearance that "the lettuce might as well be running the country."

This was followed by, on 19 October, the resignation of her Home Secretary[[note]]For non-Brits, the equivalent of an interior minister, or in the US, the Homeland Security Secretary.[[/note]] Suella Braverman after sending official documents using her personal email address. Later that day, there were chaotic scenes in Parliament during a vote on fracking, with mass confusion among Conservative [=MPs=] over whether it had been designated a confidence vote (meaning that voting against Truss's government -- which supported fracking, counter to the manifesto under which they'd been elected -- would get [=MPs=] thrown out of the party), reports of further resignations (which turned out to be inaccurate), and claims of bullying and intimidation from government ministers. This led to Creator/ITVNews anchor Tom Bradby [[https://youtu.be/e-AgqBHjhA8 openly questioning what was going on]].

This was followed by, on 19 October, the resignation of her Home Secretary[[note]]For non-Brits, the equivalent of an interior minister, or in the US, the Homeland Security Secretary.[[/note]] Suella Braverman after sending official documents using her personal email address. Later that day, there were chaotic scenes in Parliament during a vote on fracking, with mass confusion among Conservative [=MPs=] over whether it had been designated a confidence vote (meaning that voting against Truss's government -- which supported fracking, counter to the manifesto under which they'd been elected -- would get [=MPs=] thrown out of the party), reports of further resignations (which turned out to be inaccurate), and claims of bullying and intimidation from government ministers.

Boris Johnson was forced to resign on 7 July 2022, due to the mass resignation of various members of his government as a result of the fallout of the Chris Pincher scandal. Johnson had appointed Pincher to be a Deputy Chief Whip despite knowing of outstanding allegations of sexual harassment against him. Truss announced her intention to stand, having stayed on in government. Though UsefulNotes/RishiSunak, the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer, looked the early favourite (he won every preliminary ballot of Conservative [=MPs=]), much of the party membership disliked him and blamed him for Johnson's fall, as he had been one of the first members to resign. In a competitive leadership race, Truss became one of the final two members, which then went to the party membership. She won the Conservative Party leadership on 5 September 2022, thus becoming prime minister-designate, the third woman to hold the office after UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher and Theresa May. She was appointed prime minister the following day by Queen UsefulNotes/ElizabethII, who died only two days later. Truss was the fifteenth and final PM of Elizabeth's reign and the first PM to serve under UsefulNotes/CharlesIII.[[note]]As a demonstration of just how long Elizabeth's reign was, Truss was born in 1975, just over 100 years after the birth of Elizabeth's first PM, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, in 1874.[[/note]]

%%[[caption-width-right:300:The Iceberg Lady]]

%%[[caption-width-right:300:some caption text]]

On 20 October, Truss announced her resignation, and officially resigned on 25 October, after 49 days in office, becoming the [[ShortLivedLeadership shortest-serving]] British prime minister in history, beating UsefulNotes/GeorgeCanning's record of 119 days.[[note]]Canning's premiership ended because he died from tuberculosis, and his own immediate successor, [[UsefulNotes/ViscountGoderich Frederick J. Robinson, The Viscount Goderich]], served for 144 days, the shortest tenure for a PM who resigned.[[/note]] For comparison's sake, Truss served only 19 days longer than the shortest-serving U.S. president, UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison. She is also the first PM who never led their party in a general election since UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain (who served from 1937 to 1940). On 24 October, with other aspiring candidates Johnson and Penny Mordaunt having dropped out of the Tory leadership contest, Rishi Sunak was elected leader of the party and, therefore, Truss' successor as Prime Minister.

* British tabloid newspaper ''Daily Star'' responded to the increasingly tumultuous nature of her tenure by livestreaming a head of lettuce and seeing if it would expire before she left office; ''the lettuce won''. The paper responded to Truss' resignation by decorating the lettuce in her likeness and playing celebratory music. The lettuce [[AscendedMeme gained enough traction in the media]] that Labour Party MP Chris Bryant remarked during a news appearance that "the lettuce might as well be running the country."

On 20 October, Truss announced her resignation after only 45 days in office, and officially resigned on 25 October, after 49 days in office, becoming the [[ShortLivedLeadership shortest-serving]] British prime minister in history, beating UsefulNotes/GeorgeCanning's record of 119 days.[[note]]Canning's premiership ended because he died from tuberculosis, and his own immediate successor, [[UsefulNotes/ViscountGoderich Frederick J. Robinson, The Viscount Goderich]], served for 144 days, the shortest tenure for a PM who resigned.[[/note]] For comparison's sake, Truss served only 19 days longer than the shortest-serving U.S. president, UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison. She is also the first PM who never led their party in a general election since UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain (who served from 1937 to 1940). On 24 October, with other aspiring candidates Johnson and Penny Mordaunt having dropped out of the Tory leadership contest, Rishi Sunak was elected leader of the party and, therefore, Truss' successor as Prime Minister.

On 20 October, Truss announced her resignation after only 45 days in office, and officcialy resigned on 25 October, after 49 days, becoming the [[ShortLivedLeadership shortest-serving]] British prime minister in history, beating UsefulNotes/GeorgeCanning's record of 119 days.[[note]]His premiership ended because he died from tuberculosis, and his own immediate successor, [[UsefulNotes/ViscountGoderich Frederick J. Robinson, The Viscount Goderich]], served for 144 days, the shortest tenure for a PM who resigned.[[/note]] For comparison's sake, Truss served only 18 days longer than the shortest-serving U.S. president, UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison. She is also the first PM who never led their party in a general election since UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain (who served from 1937 to 1940). On 24 October, with other aspiring candidates Johnson and Penny Mordaunt having dropped out of the Tory leadership contest, Rishi Sunak was elected leader of the party and, therefore, Truss' successor as Prime Minister.

On 20 October, Truss announced her resignation after only 45 days in office, becoming the [[ShortLivedLeadership shortest-serving]] British prime minister in history, beating UsefulNotes/GeorgeCanning's record of 119 days.[[note]]His premiership ended because he died from tuberculosis, and his own immediate successor, [[UsefulNotes/ViscountGoderich Frederick J. Robinson, The Viscount Goderich]], served for 144 days, the shortest tenure for a PM who resigned.[[/note]] For comparison's sake, Truss served only 15 days longer than the shortest-serving U.S. president, UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison. She is also the first PM who never led their party in a general election since UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain (who served from 1937 to 1940). On 24 October, with other aspiring candidates Johnson and Penny Mordaunt having dropped out of the Tory leadership contest, Rishi Sunak was elected leader of the party and, therefore, Truss' successor as Prime Minister.

In the 2010 election, Liz Truss entered Parliament for South West Norfolk, following the retirement of MP Christopher Fraser. She was actually selected twice for the seat, beating five other candidates to become the prospective parliamentary candidate and then winning again after some members of the local Conservative Association found out she'd had an affair with MP Mark Field (not actually a secret -- it had been mentioned in several newspapers) and got the association to redo the internal election. Two years later, now-Prime Minister Cameron appointed her to her first ministerial position, as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Childcare and Education.

** Another RunningGag was her proudly announcing she would be in Beijing later that year to "open up new pork markets," followed by an awkward smile, also taken from that same speech. That particular quote would also be mainly used on ''Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver''.