Liz Truss resigns as U.K. prime minister after six weeks in office

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Britain has become a “laughingstock” under the Tories.

“Our reputation is being diminished every minute Liz Truss has stayed in office,” the mayor said Thursday.

From the C40 World Mayors Summit in Buenos Aires, Khan told CNN that leading mayors from around the world have been asking him, “What is going on in your country?”

“There are mayors here from the Global South who say, ‘Listen, we used to look upon the U.K. as providing certainty, and calm, the mother of all parliaments — we look to you for moral leadership,’ ” Khan said. “And we are a laughingstock.”

LONDON — Could Boris Johnson stage an extraordinary comeback? Could the 55th prime minister of Britain also be its 57th? Will he throw his hat in the ring?

Rumors were swirling on Thursday that Johnson, 58, who delivered the Conservative Party a whopping majority in 2019 – only to be brought down by a series of scandals – is mulling over a return to Downing Street.

The Times of London reported that Johnson was considering it. Steven Swinford, the paper’s political editor, said that Johnson was “taking soundings but is said to believe it is a matter of national interest.”

News of Prime Minister Liz Truss’s resignation broke during a summit of member states of the European Union, which Britain voted to leave in 2016.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tried to keep the focus on the day’s planned events in Brussels.

“Today is the European Council and that’s the topic I’m commenting on,” she told reporters, Politico reported.

And then she smiled.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he “agreed on a number of issues” with Truss but was looking forward to meeting her successor as prime minister. “I think it will be number five” during his time in office, he said.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said the British people deserve better than the Conservative Party’s “revolving door of chaos” and called for a general election.

The Tories cannot respond to this problem by “yet again simply clicking their fingers and shuffling the people at the top without the consent of the British people,” Starmer said in a statement Thursday.

“They do not have a mandate to put the country through yet another experiment,” he said. “Britain is not their personal fiefdom to run how they wish.”

Liz Truss lasted a brief six weeks as prime minister. But even with that short period in office, she may have won a lifetime of financial perks offered to former British leaders.

In rules instituted in 1991, after Truss idol Margaret Thatcher’s resignation, former prime ministers are able to claim up to almost $130,000 a year in expenses under what is known as a “Public Duty Cost Allowance.”

It isn’t quite free money. The expenses are audited so that they cannot be used for private or parliamentary purposes (some former prime ministers stay in parliament after being kicked out of the top job, including both immediate Truss predecessors Theresa May and Boris Johnson).

Liz Truss’s brief stint as prime minister was marked by economic turmoil. The announcement of her resignation Thursday appeared to give world markets a boost.

Britain’s main stock index and bond prices rose while U.S. markets spiked.

Other factors are at play, such as some investors reacting positively to Federal Reserve policies aimed at lowering inflation. But Truss’s proposed tax cuts — without an accompanying plan for how to pay for them — scared investors and roiled British markets, which in turn inflicted further financial pain on a country already reeling from inflation.

LONDON — King Charles III will soon have a new prime minister.

The new king has only been on the throne since early September, but he is already preparing to welcome the second prime minister of his reign.

Charles still has a long way to go to catch up with his mother’s record. Queen Elizabeth II had 15 prime ministers during her 70 years on the throne. She met Prime Minister Liz Truss two days before she died.

In Britain’s constitutional monarchy, the monarch and the prime minister meet weekly, currently on Wednesdays, to discuss matters of state. There is no one else in the room, and many former prime ministers have spoken about how much they have enjoyed the weekly exchanges. Some have even said they found them therapeutic. It’s the one time they can be sure no one will leak whatever is said.

The pro-Brexit coalition of Tories that captured the establishment has seen its credibility wither and its slogans about “taking back control” from the E.U. and revitalizing Britain’s economy called increasingly into question as recession looms and inflation soars. Truss’s term marks a new low for the movement as contenders to replace her struggle to articulate what the party has delivered.

Liz Truss is gone — and so is the merchandise hailing her rise to power.

Blue and white mugs with the message “In Liz We Truss” seemingly disappeared from the Conservative Party’s online shop Thursday, with hopeful shoppers getting an error message when clicking on the items.

“Oops we have no idea what just happened,” said the text on the official website, alongside a perplexed-looking robot.

“I’m not sure anyone has any idea in fairness,” tweeted Guardian reporter Ben Quinn, who shared a screenshot of the online store, though jugs shaped like former leaders Boris Johnson and Margaret Thatcher still appear to be on sale — as do Winston Churchill mugs.