LONDON, October 20 (AFP) -- U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation on Thursday.

Truss, who only became prime minister on Sept. 6, will be the shortest serving prime minister in modern political history.

"I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party," Truss said.

Her resignation follows weeks of political and economic crisis, after the government introduced a new "mini-budget" which was roundly criticized.
The leader of the opposition Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, has called for a general election. The Conservative Party, then under the leadership of Boris Johnson, won a large majority in the last general election in 2019.

Whoever is chosen as Truss’s successor from the Conservative Party ranks will become the fifth prime minister since the U.K. voted to leave the EU in the Brexit referendum of 2016 in an unprecedented period of turbulence in British political history.

From outside the steps of Number 10 Downing Street, Truss said a leadership election would take place over the next seven days.