UK Prime Minister Liz Truss resigns after failed budget and market turmoil
Prime Minister Liz Truss announces her resignation at 10 Downing Street on October 20, 2022 in London, England.
Leon Neal | Getty Images
LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned Thursday following a failed tax-cutting budget that rocked financial markets and which led to a revolt within her own Conservative Party.
Truss was in office for just 44 days, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. For 10 days of her premiership government business was paused following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
She said in a statement outside Downing Street, “We set out a vision for a low-tax, high-growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit.”
“I recognize though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to announce that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.”
The party is now due to complete a leadership election within the next week, much faster than this summer’s two-month period. Graham Brady, the Conservative politician who is in charge of leadership votes and reshuffles, told reporters he was now looking at how the vote could include Conservative MPs and the wider party members.
Her resignation came after a meeting with Brady, who chairs the 1922 Committee — the group of Conservative MPs without ministerial positions who can submit letters of no confidence in the prime minister. Just before the meeting, a Downing Street spokesperson told reporters Truss wanted to stay in office.
During the hour the meeting lasted, the number of MPs publicly calling for Truss to step down reached 17. The number who had written letters to Brady expressing no confidence in the prime minister was reported to be more than 100 by Thursday.
The pound was up 1% on the day against the dollar at 3:00 p.m., trading at $1.1214. It remains at the level it was on Sept. 22, before Truss’ market-moving budget. The yields on 30-year, 10-year and five-year gilts (U.K. sovereign bonds) were all lower after Truss’ brief speech.
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Opposition parties Labour, the Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats called for an immediate general election on Thursday afternoon. Labour leader Keir Starmer said, “The Conservative Party has shown it no longer has a mandate to govern.”
Controversial ‘mini-budget’
On Sept. 23, Truss’ finance minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced a so-called mini-budget which began a turbulent period for U.K. bond markets which balked at the debt-funded tax cuts he put forward. Most of the policies were reversed three weeks later by the second finance minister, Jeremy Hunt.
Truss beat Rishi Sunak to become leader of the Conservative Party following the resignation of Boris Johnson on July 7. Sunak is now one of the favorites to succeed Truss, along with Hunt, another leadership contender Penny Mordaunt, Defense Minister Ben Wallace and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The resignation leaves the status of the Conservatives’ expected budget update on Oct. 31 uncertain, but Truss said the leadership handover would “ensure we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans.”
In her statement, Truss suggested the legacies of her brief tenure were supporting households with energy bills and cutting the rate of national insurance, a general taxation in Britain. The cut was one of very few measures of the “mini budget” to remain; while the energy support package, which was initially set to run for two years, was cut to six months.
She also said the U.K. had “continued to stand with Ukraine and to protect our own security.”
U.S. President Joe Biden said in response to the news: “The United States and the United Kingdom are strong Allies and enduring friends — and that fact will never change.”
“I thank Prime Minister Liz Truss for her partnership on a range of issues including holding Russia accountable for its war against Ukraine … We will continue our close cooperation with the U.K. government as we work together to meet the global challenges our nations face.”
Regaining trust
Paul Dales, chief U.K. economist at Capital Economics, said the new PM would need to do more to regain the trust of financial markets.
“In just a few weeks fiscal policy has swung from being ultra loose, to less loose to outright tight,” he said in a note.
“Overall, the resignation of Truss is a step that needed to happen for the UK government to move further along the path towards restoring credibility in the eyes of the financial markets. But more needs to be done and the new Prime Minister and their Chancellor have a big task to navigate the economy through the cost of living crisis, cost of borrowing crisis and the cost of credibility crisis.”
Think tank Pantheon Macroeconomics said in a report on the U.K. Thursday: “A drawn-out recession lies ahead, now that overseas investors have lost faith in policymakers, forcing the [Monetary Policy Committee] to hike Bank Rate quickly and the government to tighten fiscal policy.”
The U.K. economy was already weakening before the “calamitous” mini-budget, the authors wrote. Looking forward, the nation faces a likely pullback in consumer spending, squeeze in households’ disposable incomes, lower employment, and higher interest rates “snuffing out” recovery in business investment, Pantheon added.
The UAW union’s Stellantis Council met yesterday to discuss the beleaguered carmaker’s “ongoing failure” to honor the agreement that ended the 2023 labor strike, and their latest union memo doesn’t pull many punches.
It’s not a great time to be Stellantis. Its dealers are suing leadership and threatening to oust the company’s controversial CEO, Carlos Tavares, as sales continue to crater in North America, it can’t move its new, high-profile electric Fiat, and it’s first luxury electric Jeep isn’t ready. And now, things are about to get bad.
In an email sent out by the UAW earlier today (received at 4:55PM CST), UAW President Shawn Fain wrote, “For years, the company picked us off plant-by-plant and we lacked the will and the means to fight back. Today is different. Because we stood together and demanded the right to strike over job security—product commitment—we have the tools to fight back and win … We unanimously recommend to the membership that every UAW worker at Stellantis prepare for a fight, and we all get ready to vote YES to authorize a strike at Stellantis.”
The dispute seems to stem from Stellantis’ inability to commit to new product (and continued employment) at its UAW-run plants and other failings to meet its strike-ending obligations. This, despite a €3 billion stock buyback executed in late 2023.
I’ve included the memo, in its entirety, below. Take a look for yourself, and let us know what you think of the UAW’s call for action in the comments.
UAW memo
SOURCE: UAW, via email.
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![Kia EV9 GT caught with an active spoiler for the first time [Video]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/09/Kia-EV9-GT-active-spoiler.jpeg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Kia promises the new EV9 GT will have “enormous power,” but that’s not all. For the first time, the Kia EV9 GT was caught with an active spoiler, giving us a sneak peek at potential new upgrades.
The brand’s first three-row electric SUV is already making its presence known in the US, helping push Kia to back-to-back record sales months. Meanwhile, a more powerful, sporty variant is on the way.
Kia confirmed the EV9 GT will top off the electric SUV’s lineup in April. Packing “enormous power,” the high-performance GT model can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 km/h) in 4 secs.
With a “high-output” dual-motor (AWD) system, the EV9 GT can quickly pick up speed despite weighing over 5,000 lbs.
Kia also equipped it with other high-performance features, such as a reinforced suspension and electronic braking system, for better control and stability.
We’ve already caught a glimpse of the performance electric SUV out testing, revealing aggressive new bumpers and wheels. Now, a new design feature has been spotted.
Kia EV9 GT could come with an active rear spoiler
The latest video from HealerTV shows the EV9 GT with what appears to be an active spoiler. As the reporter noted, it could be similar to the one spotted on the Genesis GV70 Magma.
Tesla’s Model X also used to come with an active spoiler until it was dropped a few years back. Although the GT model was spotted with one, Kia could just be testing new features, so don’t get too excited yet.
Earlier this week, a video from HealerTV showed the front row of the EV9 GT, comparing it to the current GT-Line model.
Several differences can be immediately noticed, including a more aggressive, all-black design with a yellow stripe down the center of the seat.
Kia is set to launch the EV9 GT in early 2025. It will rival other performance SUVs like the Tesla Model X Plaid.
Although prices have yet to be confirmed, the GT model is expected to sit above the current GT-Line at $73,900. In comparison, Tesla’s Model X Plaid starts at $94,990 and can sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 2.5 secs.
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Consumer Reports and EV charging app Chargeway are working together to give drivers a better way to rate public chargers, report uptime, and address maintenance issues.
The Chargeway app is best known for its use of numbers and colors to simplify the complexity of multiple charge ports and different charging speeds for new EV drivers. The app also enables Chargeway users to rate and review the public charging stations they visit – and now, those ratings can show up on Consumer Reports.
The technical collaboration with Chargeway is part of a larger effort called the EV Charging Community, which engages with a number of different EV advocacy groups including Plug In America, GreenLatinos, and Generation 180, and leverages the mobile app to rate public EV charging experiences based on various factors, with the findings reported back to industry stakeholders like EVSE manufacturers, CPOs, and utilities.
Be heard
“We are very excited to be partnering with Consumer Reports,” says Chargeway founder, Matt Teske. “From day one, Chargeway has focused on a driver first app design to provide easier EV charging experiences as well as transparency for what drivers can anticipate at (the) station they choose … we share Consumer Reports’ goal to give drivers a voice in the public EV charging reliability conversation. Now, instead of posting complaints on social media and feeling ignored, EV drivers can use the Chargeway mobile app to provide their feedback to the leading consumer advocacy organization.”
Consumer Reports says it’s already seen nearly a third of its 1,600 enrolled community members experience a problem with public charging, so it’s a real problem. “Charging stations are critical services, but when they’re out of order or barely functional, it wastes consumers’ valuable time,” explains Drew Toher, Consumer Reports’ sustainability campaign manager.
Consumer Reports points out that EV drivers who don’t use Chargeway can also enroll to be part of the community at this link.
Electrek’s Take
Chargeway founder Matt Teske is an old friend. He’s a good friend, too, so it’s great to see his top-shelf EV charging app starting to get some of the recognition it deserves. The CR tie-up and added visibility these ratings will give to industry stakeholders are only going to make things better for EV drivers everywhere.
That up there? That’s one of my early interview episodes of Quick Charge featuring a walkthrough of Chargeway+, another collab between Matt and Austin Energy. Enjoy!
SOURCE | IMAGES: Chargeway, Consumer Reports.
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