King Charles ‘graciously’ accepted Liz Truss’ resignation

The statement said: “This morning Elizabeth Truss MP had an audience with the King and tendered her resignation as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, which His Majesty graciously accepted.”

Ms Truss will be replaced by Rishi Sunak when he meets King Charles III today.

In her final speech as Prime Minister, Ms Truss warned the nation was continuing to “struggle through the storm” but insisted she believed there were “brighter days ahead”.

Speaking from Downing Street, Ms Truss said: “Since becoming Prime Minister, I am more convinced than ever that we need to be bold and rise to the challenges we face.

“We simply cannot afford to be a low-growth country where the government is taking an ever-increasing share of our national wealth and where there are huge gaps between different parts of our country. We need to use our Brexit freedoms to do things differently.”

Ms Truss has made no apologies for the disastrous mini-budget that caused financial turmoil and led to a chaotic end to her premiership.

She continued to champion her tax-cutting ideals despite being forced to reverse most of her policies when new chancellor Jeremy Hunt was brought in to clean up the mess.

She cited one of the benefits of Brexit as “lower taxes, so people keep more of the money they earn”, before wishing Mr Sunak “every success for our country”.

Mr Sunak won the Tory leadership contest on Monday without a vote after rivals Penny Mordaunt and Boris Johnson dropped out of the race.

Allies hope he will stabilize the party after the dramatic fall of Mr Johnson and the short-lived but stormy tenure of his successor.

The former chancellor is expected to begin assembling a leadership team soon to reflect some stability for both the Conservatives and the country.