Liz Truss: Six moments from the PM's six chaotic weeks
- Published
Liz Truss has resigned as the UK's prime minister after less than two months in office. From her first meeting with the Queen, to the chaos of her mini-budget, her six weeks in power have been a mix of historical moments and self-inflicted political crises.
Here are six memorable moments from her short time in Downing Street.
A first and last meeting with the Queen
A final photograph of the Queen, with her last prime minister
Though she will go down in history as the UK's shortest-serving prime minister, Ms Truss was pictured in the last public photograph of the country's longest-serving monarch.
Two days before she died, the Queen officially invited Ms Truss - her 15th prime minister - to form a government.
The photo of the pair shaking hands in Balmoral Castle sparked concerns about the Queen's health, because of her frail appearance.
Ms Truss described feeling "hugely honoured" to have met the Queen "in one of her last acts".
Mini-budget meltdown
Kwasi Kwarteng announced a mini-budget, including £45bn of tax cuts, which triggered market turmoil
Ms Truss campaigned on a plan to slash taxes and a couple of weeks into her term as prime minister, her Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, unveiled a programme of tax cuts worth £45bn ($51bn).
But Mr Kwarteng didn't explain how the cuts would be paid for. The mini-budget was announced on Friday - but when markets reopened on the following Monday morning, the pound fell to record lows against the dollar.
The now not-so mini-budget sparked market turmoil, with the Bank of England having to step tens of billions of pounds to stabilise pension funds, and mortgage rates shot up.
The chancellor reversed some of this plan, but it did little to calm politicians in Ms Truss's own Conservative Party.
It would be the first of a series of economic U-turns, prompting economic commentators to say that "Trussonomics" was dead.
A brief and brutal press conference
Watch: A dizzying 24 hours for UK politics... in under a minute
With the government troubled by market reaction and speculation of a major U-turn, Mr Kwarteng was called back from a meeting in Washington DC a day early, and he was sacked.
Hours after the firing, Ms Truss gave a brief press conference during which she was grilled about her credibility as prime minister. "How come you get to stay?", asked one journalist.
Though she answered only four questions, she stumbled over her answers, insisting that she had acted to calm "economic turmoil".
Her awkward eight-minute performance didn't convince Members of Parliament in her own party that she could stay on as leader.
'Dear oh dear'
WATCH: 'Dear oh dear' - King Charles greets Truss
Video footage from inside the weekly audiences between the British monarch and their prime minister is rare.
But when images were released of King Charles III meeting Ms Truss for the first time in Buckingham Palace, they did little to restore her public image.
As she came under increasing pressure from her colleagues on the Tory benches, the King sent social media into overdrive after muttering "dear oh dear" while exchanging small talk with Ms Truss.
Some speculated that the monarch was offering commentary on Ms Truss's leadership, but sources told the BBC's Chris Mason that he was expressing sympathy with the prime minister's hectic schedule.
Braverman's brutal letter
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The day before handing in her own resignation letter, Ms Truss was on the receiving end of one - from her Home Secretary, Suella Braverman. A former leadership rival of the prime minister, Ms Braverman quit over two data breaches. And she didn't go quietly.
In her resignation letter, she said she had made a "technical infringement" by sending an official document from a personal email, and that she was now taking responsibility.
"Pretending we haven't made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can't see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics," she wrote. "I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign."
The message was taken as a public attack on the prime minister, criticising Ms Truss and her leadership in all but name.
Ms Braverman also raised "serious concerns about this government's commitment to honouring manifesto commitments" on issues like immigration - a move seen by many commentators as an appeal for support to the hard-right of the party in a future leadership contest.
Outlasted by a lettuce
The lettuce had a longer shelf-life than the prime minister
When a political commentator joked that Ms Truss had "roughly the shelf-life of a lettuce", British newspaper the Daily Star responded by testing the theory on a live web-cam feed.
Thousands watched "lettuce-cam", or a 60p Tesco lettuce in a blond wig next to a framed photo of prime minister. As the vegetable slowly wilted before their eyes, so did Ms Truss's grip on power.
And when the PM announced her resignation, nearly 20,000 people tuned in to congratulate the lettuce on outlasting her. The national anthem was played, along with a remix of Kool and the Gang's "Celebration".
"Lettuce rejoice," exclaimed the paper's front page later that day.
And as a turbulent day in British politics drew to a close, the paper played one last trick. It projected an enormous image of the vegetable onto the exterior of the Palace of Westminster, before announcing on Twitter that "the lettuce has made it to Parliament".