Liz Truss has resigned as prime minister after just 45 days in office.
The announcement, made by Truss outside Downing Street, follows the near-complete evaporation of her political authority which has seen her crash the markets, lose two key ministers and shed the confidence of almost all her own MPs.
Truss will be the shortest-serving prime minister in UK history.
Truss said she has spoken with the King to notify him that she is resigning as the leader of the Conservative party.
Earlier she met with the chair of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, where they “agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week”.
She said: “This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security.”
Truss said she would remain as prime minister until a successor is chosen. Jeremy Hunt will not stand for the leadership contest, according to reports.
The BBC reports that Hunt has confirmed he will not stand to be the next Conservative leader and UK prime minister.
The leader of the Labour party, Sir Keir Starmer, has called for an immediate general election.
In a statement following Liz Truss’s resignation, Starmer said:
“The Conservative Party has shown it no longer has a mandate to govern. After 12 years of Tory failure, the British people deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos. In the last few years, the Tories have set record-high taxation, trashed our institutions and created a cost-of-living crisis. Now, they have crashed the economy so badly that people are facing £500 a month extra on their mortgages. The damage they have done will take years to fix.”