After scandal-plagued Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation, a second Conservative Prime Minister was elected. Following a vote of no-confidence forcing Johnson out of his leadership role, Liz Truss, a devoted Libertarian and staunch believer in small government and a free market, was voted in on September 6. However, Liz’s brief stint as Prime Minister was filled with disdain and hatred from both sides of the political spectrum.
What was originally intended as a no-nonsense economic approach that directly contradicted the much-despised Boris Johnson’s ideology quickly devolved into her political downfall. Taking influence from the notorious former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Liz Truss intended to massively boost big corporations’ power and influence through an extreme economic policy where major corporations were given enormous tax cuts. The policy was funded by borrowing, tanking both the British pound and Truss’s public image, with Helen Lewis of The Atlantic reporting, “tax cuts for millionaires as Middle Britain struggled with high energy bills, rampant inflation, and rising mortgage costs…government bonds fell sharply, which left pension funds struggling to stay solvent. Five days later, the Bank of England was forced to step in and stabilize the British economy.” Her unpopular policy resulted in the British pound falling to its lowest level in decades, with both parties uniting in their hatred of her.
After a measly 45 days in office, Liz Truss resigned on October 20, 2022, cementing her legacy as the shortest serving Prime Minister in history. An ill-timed combination of tone-deaf speeches, unpopular actions, and right-wing economic implementations turned both sides of the British government against her, resulting in her resignation speech on 22 Downing Street: “I have therefore spoken with His Majesty the King to announce that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.”
Rishi Sunak soon replaced Liz as the British Prime Minister, but controversy has already found its way into the public eye. His promised stance against migration and international students will send ripples into the higher education system of Britain as a whole, the consequences of which remain to be seen.
