Who is Liz Truss? Political journey of UK's shortest-serving prime minister

Just 44 days aft becoming premier minister, Liz Truss has announced she is to measurement down.

Until present the shortest-serving PM was George Canning who died successful August 1827. He spent lone 119 days successful office.

Ms Truss succeeded Boris Johnson arsenic PM aft winning a wide triumph implicit Rishi Sunak successful a ballot of Conservative Party members.

Two days later, Queen Elizabeth II died, the federation entered a play of mourning and mean authorities was suspended.

But astatine the extremity of the week which began with the precocious Queen's funeral, the seeds of Ms Truss's governmental demise had already been sown - successful past Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget.

It included £45bn of taxation cuts, funded by borrowing, which spooked fiscal markets and prompted a crisp autumn successful the worth of the pound.

The authorities was soon forced to scrap plans to chopped the apical complaint of income tax, but continuing marketplace turmoil meant the Bank of England had to measurement successful to prop up the worth of authorities bonds.

In the week earlier Ms Truss announced she was resigning, she sacked Mr Kwarteng - a adjacent person - and was forced to judge the junking of astir of the remainder of the mini-budget's taxation cuts on with her overarching economical agenda.

To tackle soaring vigor bills, the premier curate had besides acceptable retired her vigor terms guarantee. saying households utilizing a emblematic magnitude of state and energy would wage £2,500 a year.

This costly warrant was aboriginal scaled backmost from 2 years to six months.

Day-by-day, her government's grip connected events disintegrated - and much and much Tory MPs publically called for her to go.

So wherever did Liz Truss travel from and what made her tick?

A Remain protagonist successful 2016 referendum who reinvented herself arsenic the darling of the Brexit-backing Conservative close wing, she started her governmental travel arsenic a teenage Liberal Democrat activist.

But her committedness to instrumentality to cardinal Conservative values - cutting taxes and shrinking the authorities - went down good with Conservative Party members, who chose her implicit Rishi Sunak successful this summer's enactment ballot.

Crucially, successful the eyes of those who thought Boris Johnson has been unfairly ejected from office, she had had remained loyal to Mr Johnson the bitter end, arsenic different furniture curate deserted him.

Education: Roundhay School successful Leeds, Oxford University

Family: Married to accountant Hugh O'Leary with 2 teenage daughters

Parliamentary constituency: South West Norfolk

Born successful Oxford successful 1975, Ms Truss has described her father, a mathematics professor, and her mother, a nurse, arsenic "left-wing".

As a young girl, her parent took her connected marches for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, an organisation vehemently opposed to the Thatcher government's determination to let US atomic warheads to beryllium installed astatine RAF Greenham Common, westbound of London.

Though she is present proudly a Conservative from Leeds, backmost past she was a Scottish liberal.

The household moved to Paisley, conscionable westbound of Glasgow, erstwhile Ms Truss was four-years-old.

In a BBC interview, she recalled shouting "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie - oot, oot, oot," successful a Scottish accent, arsenic she took portion successful marches.

The Truss household aboriginal decamped to Leeds, wherever she attended Roundhay, a authorities secondary school. She has described seeing "children who failed and were fto down by debased expectations" during her clip there.

Some of Ms Truss's contemporaries astatine Roundhay person disputed her relationship of the school, including Guardian writer Martin Pengelly, who wrote: "Perhaps she is selectively deploying her upbringing, and casually traducing the schoolhouse and teachers who nurtured her, for elemental governmental gain."

One Roundhay schoolhouse mate, who did not privation to beryllium named, told the BBC: "It was a truly bully school, truly supportive teachers. Quite a batch of america person gone connected to bully universities and bully careers."

Although not portion of her relationship group, helium has wide memories of the young Truss.

"She was rather studious, serious," helium says, with a "heavy societal conscience" and portion of a radical that were into environmentalism.

"I retrieve a schoolhouse travel to Sellafield and her asking hard questions and giving them a grilling. I retrieve that rather distinctly."

At Oxford University, Ms Truss work philosophy, authorities and economics. Friends callback a well-liked, if frenetic student.

Ms Truss was progressive successful galore campaigns and causes astatine Oxford but devoted overmuch of her clip to politics, becoming president of the university's Liberal Democrats.

At the party's 1994 conference, she spoke successful favour of abolishing the monarchy, telling delegates successful Brighton: "We Liberal Democrats judge successful accidental for all. We bash not judge radical are calved to rule."

She besides campaigned for the decriminalisation of cannabis.

Her conversion to conservatism, towards the extremity of her clip astatine Oxford is said to person shocked her left-leaning parents, but for Mark Littlewood, a chap Oxford Lib Dem, it was a earthy progression.

"She's been a marketplace wide each of her big life," according to Mr Littlewood, who is present manager wide of the libertarian, escaped marketplace think-tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs.

"Her governmental vocation reflects her ideology - she has ever been highly sceptical of large authorities and privileged institutions who deliberation they cognize best," Mr Littlewood said.

She had go a Conservative due to the fact that she had met like-minded radical who shared her committedness to "personal freedom, the quality to signifier your ain beingness and signifier your ain destiny," she explained.

After graduating from Oxford she worked arsenic an accountant for Shell, and Cable & Wireless, and joined chap accountant Hugh O'Leary successful 2000. The mates person 2 children.

Ms Truss stood arsenic the Tory campaigner for Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, successful the 2001 wide election, but lost. Ms Truss suffered different decision successful Calder Valley, besides successful West Yorkshire, successful 2005.

But, her governmental ambitions undimmed, she was elected arsenic a councillor successful Greenwich, south-east London, successful 2006, and from 2008 besides worked for the right-of-centre Reform deliberation tank.

Conservative person David Cameron enactment Ms Truss connected his "A-list" of precedence candidates for the 2010 predetermination and she was selected to basal for the harmless spot of South West Norfolk.

But she rapidly faced a conflict against de-selection by the constituency Tory association, aft it was revealed she had had an matter with Tory MP Mark Field immoderate years earlier.

The effort to oust her failed and Ms Truss went connected to triumph the spot by much than 13,000 votes.

She co-authored a book, Britannia Unchained, with 4 different Conservative MPs elected successful 2010, which recommended stripping backmost authorities regularisation to boost the UK's presumption successful the world, marking her retired arsenic a salient advocator of escaped marketplace policies connected the Tory benches.

She campaigned for Remain successful the 2016 referendum, writing successful the Sun newspaper that Brexit would beryllium "a triple calamity - much rules, much forms and much delays erstwhile selling to the EU".

However, aft her broadside lost, she changed her mind, arguing that Brexit provided an accidental to "shake up the mode things work".

Under Theresa May's premiership, she became the archetypal pistillate Lord Chancellor and justness secretary, but she had respective high-profile clashes with the judiciary amd was demoted to main treasury secretary

When Boris Johnson became premier curate successful 2019, Ms Truss was moved to planetary commercialized caput - a occupation which meant gathering planetary governmental and concern leaders to beforehand UK PLC.

In 2021, aged 46, she moved to 1 of the astir elder jobs successful government, taking implicit from Dominic Raab arsenic overseas secretary.

Her determination to airs for photographs successful a vessel portion visiting British troops successful Estonia, was seen arsenic an effort to emulate Margaret Thatcher, who had famously been pictured aboard a Challenger vessel successful 1986. It besides fuelled speculation that she was connected enactment manoeuvres.

Ms Truss's run for the enactment enactment was not escaped of controversy.

Pressed connected however she would tackle the cost-of-living crisis, she said she would absorption her efforts connected "lowering the taxation burden, not giving retired handouts".

She was forced to scrap a program to nexus nationalist assemblage wage to determination surviving costs by a backlash from elder Tories who said it would mean little wage for millions of workers extracurricular London.

And she called Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon an "attention seeker", adding it was champion to "ignore her".

She besides got into a spat with French President Emmanuel Macron, who accused her of "playing to the gallery" astatine a enactment hustings. Asked if Mr Macron was a "friend oregon foe", she had said the assemblage was inactive out.

But it was home issues, oregon alternatively 1 home issue, that dominated the sometimes fractious enactment contention with Rishi Sunak.

And it was Ms Truss's effect to the cost-of-living situation that would specify her briefest of premierships.