The Conservative Party has ‘no authority’ and should call a general election, a local Liberal Democrat has said following the resignation of Liz Truss.  

Liz Truss has stepped down after a chaotic 44 days in office during which she lost the confidence of Tory MPs and the public and oversaw economic turbulence. 

The Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Wokingham, Clive Jones, described “a crisis made in Downing Street, paid for by the public”, and called for an immediate election to take place. 

“They’ve got no authority […] “We’ve had Boris Johnson failing the country with his lies and mismanagement and we have had Liz Truss trashing the economy. 

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“If they get any sort of a bounce, they will probably go for a general election in the spring of next year but I think they should go for it now because that is the right thing to do,” he added. 

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also demanded a general election “now” so that the nation can have “a chance at a fresh start”.   

Representative for Bracknell Labour, Mary Temperton, said residents will be paying for Ms Truss’ “experiment with right wing ideology” for years to come. 

She said there should now be a general election as the latest agenda pushed by the Conservatives “had very little in common” with the manifesto they were elected on. 

“The Conservatives will not call a general election because they know they would almost certainly lose. They will hang in there preserving their own skins rather than doing what is right for the country,” Ms Temperton added. 

Without a general election, the Conservatives will be on their third prime minister since December 2019.   

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Ms Truss has become the shortest serving Prime Minister in history after she battled an open revolt from Conservatives demanding her departure.  

Speaking from a lectern in Downing Street, Ms Truss said she had told the King she was resigning as the leader of the Conservative Party as she recognised she “cannot deliver the mandate” which Tory members gave her a little over six weeks ago. 

Bracknell’s MP James Sunderland stated it was “just too soon to say anything” but assured residents that “whatever happens, [his] focus will remain on Bracknell”. 

Ms Temperton believes Bracknell is a “winnable” seat for Labour, suggesting door knocking recently has been “very encouraging”. 

“The recent MP always agrees with whatever is happening or proposed in parliament. This does not go down well with his thinking electorate,” she said. 

Following talks with the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives, Sir Graham Brady, Ms Truss agreed to a fresh leadership election “to be completed within the next week”. 

“I will remain as Prime Minister until a successor has been chosen,” she said. 

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Ms Truss’s resignation came just a little over 24 hours after she told MPs she was “a fighter, not a quitter”. However, her survival chances were slashed following chaotic scenes in the Commons after the resignation of Suella Braverman as home secretary. 

The number of Tory MPs publicly demanding Ms Truss’s resignation doubled before lunch was over on Thursday, taking the total to 15, but a far greater number were privately agitating for her exit. 

The pound lifted on the resignation announcement following another volatile 24 hours for the currency amid political turmoil. 

Wokingham MP John Redwood was not able to comment at short notice.