Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

Prime Minister Liz Truss has resigned as UK prime minister in a statement outside Downing Street.

She said she could not deliver the mandate on which she was elected as Tory leader and had notified the King that she was resigning.

There will be Conservative leadership election to be completed within the next week, she says.

"I will remain as Prime Minister until a successor has been chosen," she said.

It comes after she met the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs as more Tories called for her to quit.

Truss's premiership came under renewed pressure after the home secretary resigned and a chaotic vote on fracking.

There was fury on Wednesday evening around the vote and the methods used to get MPs to vote with the government.

Muted response on markets to resignation

There has been a muted response on the markets after Liz Truss announced she was resigning as prime minister.

The pound rose initially in the immediate aftermath of the statement before settling back at around $1.12.

Before she delivered her statement, one analyst said the markets were "watching in a kind of stunned, open-mouthed horror" at political events.

Truss the briefest serving PM in UK history

Liz Truss has been in office for just 45 days - the shortest tenure of any UK prime minister. The second shortest serving PM was George Canning, who served for 119 days before dying in 1827.

Trouble began when her first Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, spooked the financial markets with his mini-budget on 23 September.

Since then, Conservative disquiet has morphed into widespread anger within the parliamentary party.

Her stepping down today follows dramatic scenes in the House of Commons last night over a vote on fracking. Calls for her to go kept growing in the hours afterwards.

Starmer demands election as Truss quits

Labour leader Keir Starmer has demanded a general election "now" after Liz Truss announced her resignation as prime minister.