The 5 shortest-serving UK prime ministers in fashionable historical past – may Liz Truss steal the crown?

With Labour surging to a file lead within the polls and letters of no confidence being despatched from Tory MPs hoping to set off yet one more management contest, is Truss about to turn into the shortest-serving UK prime minister in latest occasions?

She’s been within the job for lower than a month and havoc has been wreaked on the financial system. Her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s controversial mini price range has been blasted as fiscally irresponsible. The housing market has been despatched into chaos with surging rates of interest, the pound fell to its lowest worth in 35 years, and fears of a recent spherical of austerity have raised alarm in Whitehall.

With Labour surging to a file lead within the polls, it’s not shocking ‘no confidence letters’ are being despatched from Tory MPs, hoping to set off yet one more management contest.

However even earlier than the financial turmoil was sparked by the chancellor’s £45bn tax giveaway gamble, the bookies didn’t suppose Truss would have endurance at No 10.

Might it’s that Liz Truss turns into the shortest-serving UK prime minister in fashionable historical past?

We check out what Truss is up in opposition to, the PMs who maintain the file of getting the briefest phrases in workplace.

Sir Alec Douglas-Dwelling – Tory PM from 1963 to 1964 (a yr and a day)

Conservative Sir Douglas-Dwelling presently holds the crown because the UK’s shortest-serving PM in latest historical past. Douglas-Dwelling grew to become prime minister following the resignation of Harold Macmillan throughout a Tory Occasion disaster. Pitting in opposition to commerce unions and with an aristocratic background, Douglas-Dwelling was deemed old school and out of contact and misplaced within the 1964 election to Harold Wilson.

Sir Anthony Eden – Tory PM from 1955 to 1957 (1 yr and 279 days)

Sir Anthony Eden resigned as PM in 1957 after lower than two years within the job. It’s broadly believed that his controversial determination to make use of armed intervention within the Suez disaster marked the beginning of his demise.

Gordon Brown – Labour PM from 2007 to 2010 (2 years and 318 days)

The previous chancellor took over from Tony Blair in 2007. Throughout his time in workplace, Brown oversaw the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, the devolution of powers in Northern Eire, and the world’s first ever Local weather Change Act. But he was defeated by David Cameron within the 2010 common election.

Neville Chamberlain – Tory PM from 1937 to 1940 (2 years and 348 days)

Chamberlain is remembered for his help for the coverage of appeasement in the direction of Adolf Hitler over the annexation of Czechoslovakia and the signing Munich Settlement on 29 September 1938.  Lower than a yr after Chamberlain delivered his “Peace with Honour – Peace for Our Time” speech, Britain had entered the warfare following the invasion of Poland by German forces.

Theresa Might – Tory PM from 2016 to 2019 (3 years and 11 days)

Stepping up after David Cameron jumped ship following the Brexit referendum, Theresa Might’s time in workplace was brief however not candy. After simply over three years within the prime job and numerous Brexit deal defeats in Parliament, she suffered a catastrophic lack of confidence amongst MPs and cupboard ministers and introduced her resignation in 2019.

With prime economists, opposition events, foreign money markets and numerous Tory MPs reacting to Truss and Kwarteng’s borrowing-fuelled tax minimize spree in dismay, the humiliation of being the shortest serving PM in fashionable historical past may nicely be on the playing cards for Liz Truss.

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Ahead