Was it another example of the “glass cliff”, a phenomenon that sees women taking up positions of power that are ultimately destined to fail?
Or was it simply regressive and swift policy announcements so bad, unpopular and destructive to the economy that there was never any chance of walking back from the cliff at all?
Some say it may be a combination of both, culminating in Liz Truss breaking the record as the shortest-serving Prime Minister the United Kingdom has ever seen.
Truss resigned late Thursday night at a press conference outside 1 Downing Street after just 44 days in the role.
“Given the situation,” Truss told Britons around lunchtime, “I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative party.”
She added that she had informed King Charles that her official tenure would end next week, with the party now due for yet another leadership race which will see Britain with its third prime minister within a year.
There are reports already that Boris Johnson could return, and is expected to put himself forward.
Already, Truss has been described as a “footnote in history” – notably for the fact she saw out the Elizabethan Era, with Queen Elizabeth II dying within days of swearing Truss in–The Queen’s final public appearance.
Truss had fought a hard race to win the position. One of 11 initial candidates, it ultimately came down to two with Truss prevailing over Rishi Sunak with a pledge to deliver tax cuts ”from day one”. Truss’s majority in the vote from Tory members was the slimmest in history.
And talk of the leadership was always set to be hugely challenging, given the struggling economy, continued trade negotiations and the fallout from the pandemic. The last woman in the job, Theresa May, arguably faced a much tougher task in attempting to bring Brexit to fruition, despite personally voting against the move.
But making it worse was her personal mandate around tax cuts that seemed as unrealistic as it was unpopular. May was on the glass cliff from the outset, Truss seemed to be intentionally climbing it.
Now, two of Britain’s past three prime ministers have been female. Does the glass cliff phenomenon – the idea that a business or party that’s on the brink of total destruction and experiments with a leader outside the typical status quo (like a woman) now still hold?
The pound dropped to record lows following Truss’s mini-budget pitch, which involved billions of pound of unfunded tax cuts and energy handouts. She offered no explanation of how the cuts would be funded with the market expecting the country would have to borrow more money and see its debt levels rise further. Truss pushed a weak argument that somehow the measures would promote economic growth. Investor concerns grew, the Bank of England had to intervene to protect pension funds.
Truss attempted to address the problem, including sacking Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and replacing him with Jeremy Hunt who announced a reversal of the plans. But the public perspective that emerged was that the Prime Minister’s authority had been irreversibly undermined.
The damage had been done.
Over the past week, Truss publicly apologised for the mistakes, but declared she would “not step down” and “will lead the conservatives to the next general election.” But that wasn’t to be.
Truss technically had a 12 month amnesty on a leadership spill under party rules, with the potential for the Conservative Party to push a vote to change the rules.
Truss herself stepped in to end the mess.