'Brighter days ahead,' Liz Truss says in final speech as British premier

LONDON

Outgoing British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Tuesday said that “brighter days lie ahead” for the country.

Speaking in Downing Street for the last time as prime minister, Truss 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,” Truss added.

She said: “This means delivering more freedom for our own citizens and restoring power in democratic institutions. It means lower taxes, so people keep more of the money they earn. It means delivering growth that will lead to more job security, higher wages and greater opportunities for our children and grandchildren.”

The outgoing prime minister said it was a “huge honor to be prime minister of this great country, in particular, to lead the nation in mourning the death of her late Majesty the Queen after 70 years of service, and welcoming the accession of His Majesty King Charles III.”

Truss added that the country continues to battle through a “storm.”

“But I believe in Britain, I believe in the British people. And I know that brighter days lie ahead.”

Truss later on left for Buckingham Palace to meet King Charles III to officially tender her resignation.

On Monday, former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak became the new Tory leader after the other candidate, Penny Mordaunt, dropped out of the race minutes before the candidacy deadline was reached.

King Charles III on Tuesday will formally ask Sunak to form a new Tory government and to become the UK’s first British Asian prime minister.

The Tory leadership contest was triggered last Thursday after Truss was forced to resign following a tumultuous run in 10 Downing Street for 44 days.