UK opposition parties call for general election after resignation of Liz Truss

Britain's opposition leaders are calling for a general election after the resignation of Liz Truss as prime minister on Thursday afternoon.

"The Conservative Party has shown it no longer has a mandate to govern," Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said in a statement.

"After 12 years of Tory failure, the British people deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos," Starmer said.

Accusing the Conservative Party of setting "record-high taxation," trashing the institutions and creating a cost-of-living crisis, the Labour leader said "each one of these crises was made in Downing Street but paid for by the British public."

"Each one has left our country weaker and worse off."

Starmer said: "The British public deserve a proper say on the country's future. They must have the chance to compare the Tories' chaos with Labour's plans to sort out their mess, grow the economy for working people and rebuild the country for a fairer, greener future.

"We must have a chance at a fresh start. We need a general election - now."

The Liberal Democrats leader Edward Davey wrote on Twitter: "We don't need another Conservative Prime Minister lurching from crisis to crisis."

"We need a General Election now and the Conservatives out of power."

The Scottish National Party leader and Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also called for a general election.

"There are no words to describe this utter shambles adequately," Sturgeon wrote on Twitter.

She wrote: "It's beyond hyperbole - & parody. Reality tho is that ordinary people are paying the price. The interests of the Tory party should concern no-one right now.

"A General Election is now a democratic imperative."

Truss has become the shortest-serving political leader in British history with his resignation after only six weeks in office.

Her downfall came with turmoil in markets as a result of her tax cut policies, at a time when the country has always been suffering with the cost-of-living crisis, hyperinflation and energy crisis.

The latest polls are placing the Conservative Party at 22%, some 30 points behind the Labour Party.