Liz Truss will continue as South West Norfolk MP after leaving Downing Street
She's left Number 10 after just 49 days
Last updated 25th Oct 2022
A defiant Liz Truss has defended her controversial tax-cutting agenda and pledged to remain a backbench MP for South West Norfolk.
As she left Downing Street for the final time, the outgoing prime minister offered no apology for her turbulent 49-day term in office which saw her become Britain's shortest-serving premier.
Watched by Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey and a small group of loyal aides, she said she had acted "urgently and decisively" to support families and businesses - including overturning a hike in national insurance introduced by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor.
In a brief, three-minute address, she made no mention of the turmoil which followed Kwasi Kwarteng's calamitous £45 billion mini-budget tax giveaway which ultimately swept her away.
Instead, quoting the Roman philosopher Seneca - "It's not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it's because we do not dare that they are difficult" - she argued that reducing taxes remained the key to economic growth.
"From my time as Prime Minister, I'm more convinced than ever that we need to be bold and confront the challenges that we face," she said.
"We simply cannot afford to be a low-growth country where the Government takes up an increasing share of our national wealth and where there are huge divides between different parts of our country. We need to take advantage of our Brexit freedoms to do things differently.
"It means lower taxes so people can keep more of what they earn and it means delivering growth that will lead to more job security, higher wages and greater opportunities for our children and grandchildren."
Before heading to Buckingham Palace with her husband Hugh O'Leary and their daughters, Frances and Liberty, to tender her resignation, Mr Truss wished her successor "every success for the good of our country".
"We continue to battle through a storm but I believe in Britain, I believe in the British people and I know that brighter days lie ahead," she said.
Her departing words as she left office suggest she may not be an easy colleague for her successor.