Liz Truss resigns after 45 days as UK PM, successor to be elected next week: 10 points

Here are the key updates to this big story

–Truss said the Conservative party she heads would hold a leadership election to be completed within a week

-Truss’ resignation comes after her economic policies triggered turmoil in financial markets and a rebellion in her party obliterated her authority

-The crisis began when the Bank of England was forced into emergency bond-buying to stem a sharp sell-off in Britain’s 2.1 trillion pound ($2.3 trillion) government bond market that threatened to wreak havoc in the pension industry and increase recession risks

-The sell-off began after then-new finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax-cut announcement on 23 September

-After firing Kwarteng, Truss had announced that corporation tax would rise to 25% as intended by her predecessor Boris Johnson, reversing her earlier plan to freeze it at 19%. Kwarteng’s cut to the highest rate of income tax had already been reversed

-Truss’ resignation announcement comes just 24 hours after she said, “I am a fighter and not a quitter”, in response to MPs who criticised her. “I am someone who is prepared to front up. I’m prepared to take the tough decisions,” she said yesterday

-All eyes are now on former chancellor Rishi Sunak to be parachuted in to take charge. Sunak, who lost out to Truss’ now failed tax-cutting agenda in the leadership race last month, is seen as a key contender to step up to the post

-Further, among potential replacements — if only Conservative lawmakers can agree — are Sunak, House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt and newly appointed Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt

-Truss’s resignation came after she lost her interior minister, Suella Braverman, less than a week after she fired her finance minister. Braverman cited “serious concerns” about the government

-Truss’ government faced a complete implosion after two top ministers quit. This includes her interior minister Suella Braverman, who resigned on Wednesday after breaching rules by sending an official document from her personal email account. She used her resignation letter to lambaste Truss, saying she had “concerns about the direction of this government.”