Keir Starmer leads calls for immediate general election

Sir Keir Starmer has called for an immediate general election following Liz Truss’s resignation – after just 45 days in power. 

Starmer said the country “cannot have another experiment at the top of the Tory party.” 

The PM said she was resigning because she “cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected.” 

A new PM could be in power by Monday, or at the latest Friday 28 October. 

It will be the second Tory party leadership election this year. The new PM will be the third PM this year. 

Amid all the chaos and claims Boris Johnson is eyeing up a return to No 10, many are calling for a general election. 

The Liberal Democrats, the SNP and the Green Party have also called for an immediate general election. 

SNP Westminster Leader Ian Blackford MP said the “utter chaos at the centre of the Tory government cannot continue any longer”.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: “We do not need another Conservative prime minister lurching from crisis to crisis, we need a general election.

“It is time for Conservative MPs to do their patriotic duty, put the country first and give the people a say.”

There’s no requirement for the Tories to call a general election until at least 2024 after the Conservatives won by a landslide majority in the last one in 2019.

Truss beat out Sunak is the summer leadership race to replace Boris Johnson, but lost authority after a series of U-turns and economic errors. 

She will become the shortest-serving PM in British history when she stands down.