'They've moved with great speed and their customary brutality': Andrew Marr reacts to Liz Truss's resignation
20 October 2022, 15:09
Andrew Marr's instant reaction to Liz Truss resigning
This is Andrew Marr's instant reaction to Liz Truss resigning as Prime Minister.
Liz Truss has resigned as Prime Minister after a mere six weeks in the role.
In a statement outside Number 10, made after 45 days in office, she said: "I recognise though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.
"I have therefore spoken to His Majesty The King to notify him that I am resigning as Leader of the Conservative Party.
"This morning I met the Chair of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady.
"We have agreed there will be a leadership election to be completed in the next week.
"This will ensure we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security.
"I will remain as Prime Minister until a successor has been chosen."
In his instant reaction, Andrew Marr told LBC's Shelagh Fogarty: "I mean, chaotic scenes before she went.
"But I have to say, Shelagh, that this is in a way parliamentary democracy working properly.
"Liz Truss talked about her mandate on the steps of Downing Street.
"But her mandate was not from the British people. It was from the less than half of the Conservative Party membership in the end.
READ MORE: Liz Truss' time in office will be as long as her leadership campaign, says Ben Kentish
Liz Truss announces her resignation as Prime Minister
"And she tried to push through a pretty revolutionary and radical plan which frankly didn't work, crashed into the buffers.
"And the Conservative Party has concluded, I think rightly, that there is no majority for this in the country and therefore that she has to go.
"They have moved with great speed and their customary brutality."
Andrew also said: "A lot of flailing around, a lot of mayhem yesterday - but they have got on with it today.
"And we will now see an extraordinarily fast switch to a new leader - about the fastest I can remember I think - if it's all going to be done within a week."
