British Prime Minister Liz Truss has announced her resignation as leader of the Tory Party and the country after just six weeks in the job.
The beleaguered PM made the announcement outside 10 Downing Street at 1.30pm on Thursday afternoon, making her the shortest-serving PM in British history.
That was less than 24 hours after Suella Braverman resigned as home secretary in a letter that made a thinly-veiled demand on Truss to follow suit, and hours after a string of Tory MPs publicly urged her to go.
"Given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative party," Truss said following weeks of turmoil that saw her chancellor of the exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng quit over the negative market response to his September 23 mini-budget.
Opposition Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer repeated his demand made at Prime Minister's questions on Wednesday and at the Trade Union Congress conference on Thursday morning for a general election "now".
Speculation of her resignation had been rife after Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the powerful back-bench 1922 Committee that governs Conservative Party leadership contests, was seen entering the back door at Number 10 for a meeting with the PM.
Health Secretary Therese Coffey, who also holds the informal title of deputy PM, was seen arriving minutes later.
Truss said she had informed newly-succeeded King Charles III that she was stepping down as leader of the ruling party.
She added that Brady had agreed to hold a leadership contest "to be completed within the next week", without elaborating, and that she would stay on as PM until her successor was chosen.
The process that saw Truss appointed on September 5 involved several rounds of balloting by MPs to reduce the large field of candidates to her and former chancellor Rishi Sunak, followed by a month-long ballot of party members.
The announcement suggested that only Tory MPs would have a say in choosing the next PM.
Kwarteng's successor Jeremy Hunt, an opponent of Britain's exit from the EU like Truss, quickly ruled himself out of running for leader.
Hunt was runner up to Brexiteer Boris Johnson in the summer 2019 leadership contest to replace Theresa May, but was knocked out in the first round of balloting this July after Johnson resigned.
Remaining likely candidates include Braverman, now seen as the woman who toppled Truss, and Sunak, who led the mass wave of ministerial resignations that forced Johnson's exit.
Other possible contenders may include Kemi Badenoch, a young social conservative whose summer leadership bid was managed by former Cabinet Office Secretary Michael Gove, the more-liberal but pro-Brexit Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt and Security Minister Tom Tugendhat, an unrepentant Remainer and one of the loudest voices for military confrontation with Russia in Ukraine.
But the autumn surprise could be Johnson's return — at least according to former culture secretary Nadine Dories.
"One person was elected by the British public with a manifesto and a mandate until January ‘25. If Liz Truss is no longer PM there can be no coronation of previously failed candidates," Dorries tweeted. "MPs must demand return of Boris Johnson — if not it has to be leadership election or a GE [general election]."
Dorries said it was "inconceivable that we could continue to face the world parading the notion that we are a democracy," stressing that a "transfer of power out of the hands of the people and into the offices of a few already extremely powerful men in grey suits" would be an "abomination."