Truss in numbers: What did the prime minister accomplish during her time in office?
Liz Truss is set to be the shortest-serving prime minister in British history.
She said she will remain in office until a successor is chosen.
The results of that leadership election will be announced on Friday next week, so Ms Truss’s tenure will be shorter than previous the record holder George Canning – a record that he held for almost 200 years.
Mr Canning’s 1827 premiership lasted just 118 days, cut short by his death from tuberculosis. When Ms Truss leaves office next Friday she will have lasted 66 days fewer.
Despite being the shortest-serving prime minister, the death of the Queen two days after she started means Ms Truss is the first in 70 years to serve under two different monarchs.
Public opinion
One of the reasons for Ms Truss’s rapid departure is because of her party’s position in the polls since she took office.
Labour’s lead over the Conservatives has not been higher since January 1998, shortly after Tony Blair became prime minister.
If an election was held today, polls suggest that more than half of people in the UK would back Sir Keir Starmer’s party while fewer than a quarter would vote Conservative.
Ms Truss’s personal approval rating became very low, very quickly, reaching -51 on 8 October. Just 16% of people said they were satisfied with her performance, while 67% said they were unsatisfied.
That’s worse than the levels ever reached by Boris Johnson, despite his longer time in power. It’s the lowest rating since Gordon Brown reached the same level in July 2008 during the depths of the financial crisis.
Political instability
The prime minister’s six weeks in office were defined by political turmoil and the resignation of her two most senior ministers.
Kwasi Kwarteng’s resignation after just 38 days in the Treasury makes him the second shortest-serving chancellor since 1945.
And when Suella Braverman resigned on Wednesday she became only the second home secretary to serve for fewer than 50 days since the office was established in 1782.
Changes in personnel during Ms Truss’s short time in office were matched by frequent changes in policy.
Taking office on 6 September, her first day, Liz Truss said that her priorities would be growing the economy through “tax cuts and reform”, dealing “hands on” with the energy crisis, and improving access to the NHS.
Though her premiership was brief, Ms Truss and her first chancellor, Mr Kwarteng, announced a number of significant tax cuts and a major package of support to help households cope with the energy crisis.
Her legacy will be more limited, however, as on Monday Ms Truss’s second chancellor Jeremy Hunt cancelled nearly all of Mr Kwarteng’s tax-cutting measures, as well as his plans to extend the current energy price guarantee beyond April 2023.
What still remains of her policy announcements are a limited energy support package, the cancelled rise to National Insurance, the uplift to the stamp duty threshold, and the ability of bankers to receive bonuses more than double their salary.
Economic turmoil
Another big reason that Ms Truss was forced to resign was her impact on the economy.
Markets reacted negatively to the agenda she and Mr Kwarteng revealed on 23 September – to the policies themselves and the government’s decision not to submit it for scrutiny to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK’s independent fiscal watchdog.
The mini-budget’s negative reception among international investors led to a sharp fall in the value of the pound against the US dollar.
The exchange rate reached an all-time low of $1.03 to the pound on 26 September, three days after the mini-budget, before rallying over subsequent weeks thanks in part to a response by the Bank of England.
Market volatility and the possibility of a sharp increase in central bank interest rates also led to a surge in predicted interest rates.
Hundreds of mortgage products were withdrawn altogether by lenders, and borrowers on variable rates are facing the prospect of mortgage repayment rises of potentially hundreds or thousands of pounds a month.
Since Jeremy Hunt became chancellor, the predictions for next year have lowered slightly but are still higher than had been expected when Ms Truss became prime minister.
We’ve mentioned many issues caused by Ms Truss’s policies, but it is worth remembering that there are other problems in dire need of attention.
Given the chaos at Westminster in the weeks before Boris Johnson’s resignation three months ago, it’s difficult to argue that there has been an effective government in place in Britain since the summer.
The NHS treatment waiting list reached another record high in figures announced last week – one in eight people are now waiting for treatment.
People are waiting longer than ever for cancer care, for ambulances and in A&E, even before we get to the winter period when effective healthcare typically becomes even more difficult.
What have people been saying on social media?
One of the reasons some MPs were said to be reluctant to remove Liz Truss was that more political instability would mean more delays.
But some members of the public expressing their views on social media on Thursday didn’t seem too sorry to see her go.
The following mind maps were generated using data gathered by Talkwalker, a social listening company, based on Twitter, Tik Tok and YouTube posts from users in the UK.
In the past 24 hours (up to 4pm today), some of the most popular main phrases being posted about Liz Truss include “economic strain”, “desperate attempt”, “ordinary people” and “anti-democratic disgrace”.
Other slightly less frequent phrases include: “cold homes” (referring to concerns over heating costs), “utter chaos” and “dark days”.
What people were saying about Liz Truss when she became prime minister on 6 September. Sky News/Talkwalker
“Compassionate Conservatives” is also trending, but when looking at the posts in context they are overwhelmingly using this phrase with either sarcasm or to say the Conservatives are not compassionate.
It is a similar case with the phrase “huge congratulations”, with posters appearing to give sarcastic well-wishes to Ms Truss.
But how does this compare to Liz Truss’s first day in office?
Phrases on 6 September are much more varied and reflect a number of other issues in the news at the time, such as migrants crossing the channel in “small boats” and concerns around the energy crisis, the economic situation and poverty.
Phrases referring directly to Mrs Truss’s appointment as prime minister include both “bleak start” and “fresh start” (mostly people saying they believe Ms Truss is not a fresh start), as well as “low expectations”.
What people were saying about Liz Truss when she resigned as prime minister on 20 October. Sky News/Talkwalker
Some posts are positive, with some praising the prime minister’s handling of the media that day as a sign the country was in “safe hands”.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News.
We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
A father and son have been identified as the suspected gunmen in the terror attack on a Jewish event in Bondi Beach which killed at least 15 people.
More than 1,000 people were celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on the beach on Sunday evening when two people opened fire on them.
Those killed in the attack range from 10 years of age to 87, including a rabbi and a Holocaust survivor, while 38 others have been injured.
One of the alleged gunmen has been named by New South Wales (NSW) police as 24-year-old Naveed Akram, while the other has been identified as his 50-year-old father Sajid Akram.
How did they carry out the attack?
Footage shows the gunmen start firing into the crowd from a footbridge that leads over a car park to the beach.
Sky News has identified from the footage that the younger gunman was using a rifle, while the older one was using a semi-automatic shotgun.
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What’s been said about the gunmen
Police commissioner Mal Lanyon said officers searched two properties in connection with the suspects and found that the father had six firearms licenced to him.
Follow live: 15 people and gunman killed in shooting
He said they were confident that those firearms were the six found at the scene of the shooting.
More footage from the scene showed that a man, later identified as 43-year-old fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed, tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen, believed to be the father Sajid, before pointing his own weapon at him, which was empty.
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Moment ‘hero’ disarmed gunman
The footage then showed the disarmed gunman running towards where the other gunman was located. Mr Ahmed was shot twice in the incident and required surgery, his family said.
The shooting is estimated to have gone on for roughly 10 minutes from 6.47pm. Eventually, the police took down the gunmen 75 seconds apart on the bridge.
Read more:
The victims of Bondi terror attack
Eyewitness accounts of ‘utter panic and chaos’
The father was killed at the scene by police, while the son was shot and wounded.
He is being treated at a hospital, according to police. Mr Lanyon said he “may well” face criminal charges.
In an update on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told ABC that the suspect was in a coma.
He also said there were a range of IEDs and “explosive devices” in their car that they intended to use to “cause further damage”.
What do we know about their backgrounds?
Sajid Akram arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa and transferred to a partner visa three years later, before becoming a permanent resident, according to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. Officials have not disclosed what country he migrated from.
He had his gun licence for approximately a decade and held a gun club membership, Mr Lanyon said.
The younger suspect was an Australian-born citizen who first came to the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in October 2019, Mr Albanese told reporters.
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Younger gunman was part of 2019 ‘investigation’
“He was examined on the basis of being associated with others and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Mr Albanese said.
Mr Albanese said the suspect was investigated for six months over his connections to two people who later went to jail, one man for planning terror attacks.
He said he was not put on a watch list because the investigation uncovered no evidence that he was planning or considering any act of antisemitic violence.
Neither the father nor son have been on the ASIO’s radar since the 7 October Hamas attacks, he added.
What do we know about the motives?
New South Wales Police designated the attack a terrorist incident, and Mr Lanyon said a “significant investigation” would be led by counterterrorism and that “no stone will be left unturned”.
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Community mourns after attack
“When I asked for calm, that is really important,” he said. “This is not a time for retribution. This is a time to allow the police to do their duty. So police are responding to make sure that all of the community is safe.”
Mr Albanese called the massacre an act of antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation.
On Monday, he said the attackers were “two evil people… driven by ideology” whose actions were the result of an “extreme perversion of Islam”.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said after the attack: “This attack was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community on the first day of Hanukkah. What should have been a night of peace and joy celebrated in that community with families and supporters has been shattered by this horrifying, evil attack.”
Pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai has been found guilty of national security offences in Hong Kong.
The media tycoon and British citizen, 78, was arrested in August 2020 after China imposed a national security law following massive anti-government protests in Hong Kong.
Sky News’ Asia correspondent Helen-Ann Smith, who is at West Kowloon Law Courts Building, said Mr Lai looked “drawn and thin” as he listened to the verdict being delivered.
He had previously been sentenced for several lesser offences during his five years in prison.
Mr Lai, who founded the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security, as well as one count of conspiracy to distribute seditious publications.
He has been found guilty of all three charges.
His trial, heard by three judges approved by the government without a jury present, has been closely monitored by the UK, the US, the European Union and political observers as a barometer of media freedom and judicial independence in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Mr Lai has spent more than 1,800 days in solitary confinement. His family say his health has worsened as a result and that he suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and heart palpitations.
In August, Mr Lai’s son, Sebastien, told Sky News that unless the British government (of which Mr Lai is a citizen) intervenes, his father “is most likely going to die in jail”.
Lai arriving at court in 2020. Pic: AP
Sebastien said his father’s death would not just be a personal tragedy, but a huge problem for both the Hong Kong authorities and Beijing’s government.
“You can’t tell the world you have the rule of law, the free press and all these values that are instrumental to a financial centre and still have my father in jail,” he told Sky News.
“And if he dies, that’s it, that’s a comma on Hong Kong as a financial centre.”
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A bystander hailed a hero after he tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen in the Bondi Beach shooting is a shop owner.
The man, named by a relative as 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, was seen in a video running up to the attacker from behind and then grabbing the shotgun from his hands before pointing the weapon back at him.
The footage then showed the terrorist heading towards a bridge where another gunman was located, while the bystander placed the gun beside a tree.
Ahmed al Ahmed (in a white T-shirt) is seen in a video running up to a gunman from behind
Mr Ahmed then wrestles with the attacker
Live updates on Sydney shooting
Mr Ahmed, who was wearing a white T-shirt, was shot twice in the incident and was due to have surgery, his cousin, Mustafa, has revealed.
In a video on 7News, Mr Ahmed appeared to have a bloodied arm and hand, and was helped by other people near the scene in the Australian city.
At least 11 people were killed and 29 others injured in the attack when two gunmen opened fire from a bridge on crowds at a Jewish event around 6pm local time on Sunday evening.
More than 1,000 people had been at the gathering which was celebrating the festival of Hanukkah.
Mr Ahmed manages to get the gun off the terrorist
The bystander then points the weapon at the attacker who moves away towards a bridge
A gunman was killed and another was in a critical condition following the shooting.
One of the suspects was 24-year-old Naveed Akram.
His driver’s licence says he lives in Bonnyrigg, a suburb of Sydney. The identity of the other suspected attacker is not known.
Naveed Akram, 24, was one of the suspects
Mustafa said father-of-two Mr Ahmed, who owns a fruit shop in the Sydney suburb of Sutherland, did not have any experience with guns but was just walking past when he decided to step in.
He told 7News: “He’s in hospital and we don’t know exactly what’s going on inside.
“We do hope he will be fine. He’s a hero, 100%.”
Read more:
What we know about mass shooting
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One of the suspected gunmen has been named as 24-year-old Naveed Akram.
The footage of the bystander’s actions spread quickly on social media as people praised the man for his bravery, saying his actions had potentially saved many lives.
“Australian hero (random civilian) wrestles gun off attacker and disarms him. Some people are brave and then some people are… whatever this is,” one person said on X, sharing the video.
“This Australian man saved countless lives by stripping the gun off one of the terrorists at Bondi beach. HERO,” another said.
Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales state, where Sydney is located, said it was the “most unbelievable scene I’ve ever seen”.
“A man walking up to a gunman who had fired on the community and single-handedly disarming him, putting his own life at risk to save the lives of countless other people.”
“That man is a genuine hero, and I’ve got no doubt that there are many, many people alive tonight as a result of his bravery,” he added.
The country’s prime minister Anthony Albanese praised the actions of Australians who had “run towards danger in order to help others”.
“These Australians are heroes and their bravery has saved lives,” he told a news conference.
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