It was all over before it had barely begun. British Prime Minister Liz Truss has enjoyed the shortest of political honeymoons. Discounting 10 days of mourning for the late Queen Elizabeth II, Truss had only a week before her political programme imploded, leading to the sacking of her finance minister.
Truss’s widely expected resignation came soon after she conducted a meeting with a Conservative official tasked with assessing whether the PM still has the support of Tory members of Parliament.
SEPT. 5 – TRUSS WINS LEADERSHIP CONTEST
Truss is elected Conservative Party leader by the party’s membership, winning 57% of the vote to succeed Boris Johnson.
SEPT. 6 – TRUSS OFFICIALLY BECOMES PM
Johnson formally tenders his resignation to Queen Elizabeth and Truss is appointed prime minister.
SEPT. 8 – TRUSS ANNOUNCES ENERGY SUPPORT PACKAGE
Truss announces the government will cap soaring consumer energy bills for two years to cushion the economic shock of war in Ukraine, a plan expected to cost the country tens of billions of pounds.
SEPT. 8 – QUEEN ELIZABETH DIES
The British monarch dies at 96. Ten days of national mourning begin, effectively putting politics on hold. Her heir, Prince Charles, becomes King Charles III.
SEPT. 19 – QUEEN’S FUNERAL
Truss makes her first appearance on the international stage as prime minister by giving a Bible reading at the funeral.
SEPT. 20-21 – TRUSS TRAVELS TO UN
Truss travels to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, her first foreign trip as prime minister, and has her first in-person meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden.
SEPT. 23 – MINI-BUDGET
Truss’s finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng sets out a “mini-budget” that includes 45 billion pounds ($50 billion) of unfunded tax cuts and huge increases in government borrowing. The pound plummets and bond yields rise as investors fear the consequences of inflation and government debt.
Kwarteng is criticised for failing to publish growth and borrowing forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) government watchdog alongside the budget.
SEPT. 26 – BANK OF ENGLAND CONCERNED
The central bank says it will not hesitate to change interest rates and is monitoring markets “very closely” after the pound plunged to a record low and British bond prices collapsed in response to the new government’s financial plans.
SEPT. 28 – BANK OF ENGLAND STEPS IN
The Bank of England seeks to quell the firestorm in Britain’s bond markets, saying it will buy as much government debt as needed to restore order.
SEPT. 29 – TRUSS STICKS TO HER PLAN
Truss breaks her silence after nearly a week of market chaos to say she is prepared to make controversial and difficult decisions to get the economy growing.
She acknowledged that the UK was facing “very, very difficult economic times”, but said the problems were global and spurred by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
SEPT. 30 – TRUSS AND KWARTENG HOLD TALKS
The duo discuss pressing issues with the officials from the OBR but maintain their fiscal plans.
OCT. 3 – U-TURN ON TOP RATE OF TAX
Truss and Kwarteng are forced to reverse a planned cut to the highest rate of income tax after turmoil in markets and opposition from many of their own Conservative lawmakers. “We get it and we have listened,” Kwarteng posts on Twitter.
OCT. 6 – TRUSS ATTENDS MEETING OF NEW EUROPEAN CLUB
Truss attends the inaugural meeting of the European Political Community in Prague, with some hoping her decision to attend was the sign of a reset in relations between Brussels and London.
OCT. 5 – CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONFERENCE
Truss defends her growth plans, whilst a key UK mortgage rate exceeds 6 per cent for the first time since 2008.
OCT. 10 – KWARTENG BRINGS FORWARD BUDGET DATE
In another volte-face, Kwarteng reveals he will publish a medium-term fiscal plan alongside independent budget forecasts on October 31, Halloween, rather than in late November as originally planned.
OCT. 11 – BANK OF ENGLAND ACTS AGAIN
The Bank of England expands its programme of daily bond purchases to include inflation-linked debt, citing a “material risk” to British financial stability and “the prospect of self-reinforcing ‘fire sale’ dynamics”.
OCT. 12 – NO PLANS TO REVERSE TAX CUTS
The government says it will not reverse its vast tax cuts or reduce public spending despite ongoing market turmoil.
British government borrowing costs hit a 20-year high.
OCT. 14 – TRUSS SACKS KWARTENG
Truss fires Kwarteng and acknowledges her government’s plans had gone “further and faster” than investors were expecting. She appoints Jeremy Hunt as his replacement.
She also announces corporation tax will rise to 25%, reversing an earlier plan to freeze it at 19%, and says public spending will have to grow less rapidly than previously planned.
OCT. 17 – NEW FM HUNT REVERSES MOST OF BUDGET
Hunt reverses nearly all of the mini-budget and reins in the vast energy subsidy plan, saying the country needs to rebuild investor confidence. He says changes to planned tax cuts will raise 32 billion pounds and government spending cuts will also be needed.
OCT. 19 – BRAVERMAN QUITS, CHAOTIC PARLIAMENT VOTE
Interior minister Suella Braverman resigns after breaking rules by sending an official document from her personal email. She also says she has serious concerns about the government and that just hoping problems would go away is not a viable approach.
The departure of Braverman means Truss has now lost two of her most senior ministers in less than a week, both replaced by politicians who had not backed her for the leadership.
Hours later, Conservative lawmakers openly row amid confusion over whether a vote on fracking is a confidence vote in the government. The government wins the vote but more than 30 Conservatives do not take part and Truss’s office says those without a reasonable excuse can expect disciplinary action.
(With agency inputs)
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