After the chaos and contemplation of the previous evening, Liz Truss began preparing for the inevitable. Messaging aides all morning, unable to sack her Chief Whip, and confronted by Graham Brady before midday with the evidence that many MPs had called for her resignation, she concluded her position was unretrievable. She told her team: “Politics is a blood sport and I’m the fox.”
The Palace was contacted; a speech was written up. Just after 1:30 PM, Truss emerged from Number 10 with her husband to explain she could not “deliver the mandate on which [she] was elected”, and announced her resignation as Conservative leader. Her speech lasted 89 seconds. To crying staff, she said: “Don’t worry, I’m relieved it’s over…at least I’ve been Prime Minister.”
With acknowledgments to Harry Cole and James Heale‘s Out of the Blue: the Inside Story of the Unexpected Rise and Rapid Fall of Liz Truss