Russia lashes out at ‘disgrace’ Truss in brutal attack on outgoing PM
Liz Truss announces her resignation as Prime Minister
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Russia has hit out at Liz Truss after the embattled Prime Minister announced her resignation today following weeks of chaos. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova branded Ms Truss a “disgrace” and said she would be remembered for her “catastrophic illiteracy”.
Ms Zakharova said: “Britain has never known such a disgrace of a Prime Minister.”
Ms Truss has been at the receiving end of digs from Moscow since she visited in February as part of a drive by Western politicians to avert Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The claim of “catastrophic illiteracy” is an apparant reference to Ms Truss appearing to confuse two regions of Russia with neighbouring Ukraine in a meeting with Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov during the trip.
Relations between Moscow and London have plummeted to their lowest level in decades in recent years with the brutal invasion of Ukraine and the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018.
The UK has been a staunch supporter of Kyiv which has put up fierce resistance to Putin’s assault.
It comes as Ms Truss announced she was quitting as PM after a chaotic 44 days in office.
She is set to become the shortest-serving Prime Minister in history after she faced an open revolt from Conservative MPs demanding her departure in the wake of economic turmoil sparked by the mini-budget, which spooked financial markets with its unfunded tax cuts.
Speaking outside Downing Street this afternoon, 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 when she beat Rishi Sunak in the race to replace Boris Johnson.
She held talks with the chairman of the powerful 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives, Sir Graham Brady, and agreed for a fresh leadership contest “to be completed within the next week”.
Ms Truss added: “This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plan and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security.
“I will remain as Prime Minister until a successor has been chosen.”
Ms Truss’s resignation comes just over 24 hours after insisting she was “a fighter, not a quitter” during a bruising Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
The move will trigger a scramble among Tory leadership hopefuls to replace her, with reports Boris Johnson could make a sensational comeback by throwing his hat in the ring.
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