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Melissa Harris-Perry: Earlier today British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation after only six weeks in leadership.

Liz Truss: I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.

Melissa Harris-Perry: The brief turbulent tenure of Liz Truss is at an end. Shortly after Truss announced her resignation, I talked with Adela Suliman, Breaking News reporter for The Washington Post in London.

Adela Suliman: Even though it's been quite trailed and she's been doing very badly for the last few days, people are still quite stunned at the fact that she's gone, the fact that she chose to resign rather than waiting to be pushed. There's a real sense of chaos and instability, I'd say, here in the UK coming from the political sphere.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Back us up a bit and remind us of the relatively long process of bringing her into power, so help us to understand that process. I'm particularly interested in whether or not the clues to this swift demise were already readily apparent.

Adela Suliman: Yes, to some degree, she was handed a poison chalice that I think your listeners might remember the very flamboyant Boris Johnson who was ousted after the so-called Partygate which was accusations that he had parties during coronavirus lockdowns in number 10 Downing Street which, as you can imagine, really angered the British public.

As he went, there was a Conservative Party leadership race and Liz Truss came out on top of that and it was voted just amongst national members of the Conservative Party, so a very small cohort of people put her in place. Even her own Conservative lawmakers in Parliament didn't have a say. In some ways, the seeds were already sown for her downfall and what we've seen play out is a complete lack of support for her at the top level and increasingly a lack of support for her in the public level. People feel they haven't had a say, they didn't elect her, and now we see that she has gone, so that's how we got here.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Speaking of the very flamboyant former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, of course, immediately rumors began to swirl that he may seek to resume leadership by standing for Conservative Party leadership. Is that a real possibility?

Adela Suliman: It is and it's that classic British politician thing where they don't come out and say so but all of his allies and people within the Conservative Party are not denying the fact that he has an interest to run. I think there's a quote that he says to come forward again would be in the "national interest". He's looking potentially at having a second go at this whether or not the British public accept that, whether or not the fellow Conservative Party members accept that remains to be seen, but he is one of the contenders, no doubt.

Melissa Harris-Perry: You've made this point about how the public is feeling they did not have an opportunity to have a voice in Ms. Truss. I'm going to take a listen here to the Labor Party leader.

Keir Starmer: Well, what a mess. This is not just the soap opera at the top of the Tory Party, is doing huge damage to our economy and to the reputation of our country and the public are paying with higher prices, with higher mortgages. We can't have a revolving door of chaos.

Melissa Harris-Perry: He went on to immediately call for a general election. Is that the next step?

Adela Suliman: Unfortunately, it's not so. Liz Truss herself in her outgoing speech just a few hours ago made clear that the next step will be an internal Conservative Party leadership contest. The people who are front runners will be able to put themselves forward and be voted, likely, in an online ballot. A general election isn't the next step.

However, we just don't know what might happen. The public anger here is so high. The front pages of newspapers, the broadcasters, social media say we may see some outpouring in the streets, we may see protests, which will, obviously, pressure the Conservative Party to succumb and hold a general election. As you heard from Keir Starmer there, that's not in that interest because they may face being wiped out in many seats.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Now, again, Labor Party leader, Keir Starmer, also just very briefly there referenced the economic conditions. Again, for our listeners, can you help to lay out exactly what the people of Great Britain are experiencing in their day-to-day economic lives right now?

Adela Suliman: Yes, that's a really good question, Melissa. It gets to the heart of things because it's really the economy which has led to her downfall. As you may remember, she and her previous finance minister put together a very radical set of tax cuts for the wealthiest and that didn't go down well with the vast majority of the British public who, like people in the US and elsewhere, are facing very high cost of living bills, rising energy bills because of the war in Ukraine.

This is really at the heart of things and, as you saw, the pound reacted badly, it plummeted. There's been all sorts of international market implications, and of course, she fired her finance minister as well. The economy is really at the heart of the troubles that have led to Liz Truss resigning today.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Yet, I can't even believe I'm asking this, but is it fair to lay blame for the economy at the feet of a prime minister who was only in office a little over 40 days?

Adela Suliman: That's a fair question but I think the fact that she came in and made it very large part of her leadership campaign the fact that she was going to make some quite radical changes to the economy has really laid most of the blame at her door. I think the fact that she fired her finance minister also led to criticism of people saying that she shifted the blame onto him individually. In some part, it is her doing, but you are right, there is a wider global headwind which all countries are grappling with.

Melissa Harris-Perry: This swift leadership change I think is pretty surprising for Americans who are typically pretty unfamiliar with the parliamentary system. Certainly, we have pretty sophisticated listeners here on The Takeaway, but I guess the real question I'm asking here is, is this kind of leadership change, this revolving doors, as it was described by Starmer, is this an indication of a system that is fragile or evidence of its flexibility and its capacity to adapt?

Adela Suliman: I think you hit the nail on the head there, Melissa. This instability is really unusual here in the UK. It's something that we're used to seeing in European democracies, perhaps in Italy or in Scandinavia coalition governments, the kind of flexible democracy but that isn't really the case here. We're quite used to prime ministers serving out their five-year terms at least, and this has come as a real shock and it's that instability which I think is going towards the public anger at the moment.

Melissa Harris-Perry: There was quite a race going on between Ms. Truss and a head of lettuce. Looks like the head of lettuce may have won here. Can you explain that?

Adela Suliman: Yes. The lettuce has definitely won. One of the British tabloids rather cheekily had a live screen going of a picture of Liz Truss and a lettuce which is supposed to have a shelf life of 10 days. It was asking viewers to tune in to see which would wilt burst and it looks as though Liz Truss has gone before the lettuce has gone. That's a great source of fun and interest here in the UK.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Oh my goodness. Adela, again, thank you so much for joining us.

Adela Suliman: Thank you.

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