Stand by your mum! Liz Truss’s teenage daughters Frances and Liberty are joined by her husband Hugh outside No10 as she bowed out after 49 days in office
- Ms Truss was flanked by her husband Hugh O’Leary and their teenage daughters as she left Number 10
- As she gave her final speech and paid tribute to her family for their support, they stood loyally behind her
- After her speech, Ms Truss and Mr O’Leary then walked down Downing Street together as daughters followed
Liz Truss was supported by family today as she left Downing Street for the last time as Prime Minister.
The departing Conservative PM was pictured flanked by her husband Hugh O’Leary and their teenage daughters Francis, 16, and Liberty, 13, who are both rarely seen in public.
As Ms Truss gave her final speech outside Number 10 after just 49 days in office, her husband and children stood side by side behind her.
Ms Truss paid tribute to her family, thanking them for their ‘love, friendship and support’. She said she now plans to spend more time in her Norfolk constituency ‘from the backbenches’.
After her speech, Ms Truss and Mr O’Leary then walked down Downing Street together as their daughters followed behind.
Frances and Liberty did not join their parents for the journey to Ms Truss’s final audience with King Charles III, and instead arrived at Buckingham Palace separately.
The daughters were later seen echoing their mother and father by shaking hands with Charles’s equerry after arriving.
After a short audience with the King, Ms Truss and her family left the palace ahead of Mr Sunak’s arrival, with an official statement saying she had ‘tendered her resignation as PM and First Lord of the Treasury’.
Liz Truss was supported by family today as she left Downing Street for the last time as Prime Minister. Above: Ms Truss with husband Hugh O’Leary and daughters Francis (right), 16, and Liberty (right)
As Ms Truss gave her final speech outside Number 10 after just 49 days in office, her husband and children stood side by side behind her
The daughters were later seen echoing their mother and father by shaking hands with King Charles’s equerry after arriving at Buckingham Palace
Ms Truss and her accountant husband married in 2000 after they met at the Tory party conference in 1997.
The couple’s marriage survived Ms Truss’s affair with Tory MP Mark Field, which was revealed in 2006.
The politician revealed during her Tory leadership bid in July that her daughters were managing her social media campaign.
She said that thanks to her computing GCSE, Frances was able to help on the ‘digital team’, whilst her younger daughter was giving ‘general political advice’.
In her final speech, Ms Truss stressed the need to be ‘bold’, praised tax cuts and celebrated reversing the national insurance hike imposed by Mr Sunak when he was Chancellor.
She warned the nation continues to ‘battle through a storm’ but insisted she believes that ‘brighter days lie ahead’.
Ms Truss said: ‘From my time as Prime Minister I’m more convinced than ever that we need to be bold and confront the challenges we face.
‘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.’
Ms Truss made no apologies for the disastrous mini-budget that sparked financial turmoil and led to the chaotic end of her premiership.
She continued to stand by her tax-cutting ideals, despite being forced to reverse most of her policies when new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was brought in to clear up the mess.
She cited one of Brexit’s benefits as ‘lower taxes, so people keep more of the money they earn’, before wishing Mr Sunak ‘every success, for the good of our country’.
In her final speech, Ms Truss stressed the need to be ‘bold’, praised tax cuts and celebrated reversing the national insurance hike imposed by Mr Sunak when he was Chancellor
Ms Truss talks to her husband as her daughters follow behind. The family have had just 45 days in Number 10
The Truss family walk down Downing Street for the last time as Ms Truss’s time as Prime Minister comes to an end after just 49 days
Ms Truss shakes hands with King Charles’s equerry, Lieutenant Colonel Johnny Thompson as she arrives at Buckingham Palace
Mr O’Leary is seen being greeted at Buckingham Palace by King Charles’s equerry, Lieutenant Colonel Johnny Thompson
In the speech lasting three minutes and seven seconds, Ms Truss quoted Roman philosopher Seneca to say: ‘It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that they are difficult.’
Ms Truss thanked her family and her short-lived Downing Street team during the speech in front of a relatively small crowd of supporters that included her daughters Frances and Liberty, husband Hugh O’Leary and Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey.
‘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 ended her speech by saying.
Mr Sunak will be appointed as the country’s next prime minister by the King and look to build a new Cabinet that might unite a fractious Tory party.
He is expected to address the nation after being appointed as the UK’s first Hindu prime minister, the first of Asian heritage, and the youngest for more than 200 years at the age of 42.
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 stabilise the party following Mr Johnson’s dramatic downfall and his successor’s fleeting but tumultuous tenure.
The former chancellor is expected to quickly begin assembling a top team to portray a measure of stability to both the Conservatives and the country.
Long-time backers Dominic Raab, the former justice secretary, Commons Treasury Committee chairman Mel Stride and ex-chief whip Mark Harper have been tipped for jobs.
While not confirmed, Mr Hunt, who replaced Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor amid economic turbulence, is expected to remain at the top of the Treasury.
Mr Hunt has been working towards a highly-anticipated Halloween statement on the Government’s medium-term fiscal plans, complete with independent forecasts.
Mr Sunak has ruled out allowing the early general election demanded by opposition parties as the Tories move on to their third prime minister on the mandate won by Mr Johnson in 2019.
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