Liz Truss’s political fall — the shortest tenure for a prime minister in Britain’s history — was sudden, but it was not a surprise to many Britons on Thursday.
“It was a matter of time, really,” Gus Correa, 32, a graphic designer in East London, said shortly after Ms. Truss announced that she was stepping down.
British politics — not to mention its economy — have been roiling almost from the start of Ms. Truss’s tenure six weeks ago. Her announcement of new tax-cutting plans caused immediate alarm, and her new finance minister soon reversed virtually all of her proposals.
Mr. Correa viewed Ms. Truss’s resignation as a positive step, but said that he remained worried about the country’s future, with the economy in turmoil, post-Brexit dynamics and the lingering coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m not sure how Britain will get out of this,” he said.
Cristian Cretu, a gas engineer, expressed similar concerns.
“We are in an economic crisis, a political crisis, a food crisis — an everything crisis,” he said. “Whoever is going to replace her, I don’t think they will make a difference.”
Though Mr. Cretu said he admired Jeremy Hunt, the newly appointed chancellor of the Exchequer who undid the last vestiges of Ms. Truss’s tax proposals, he said it was time for a change in governance.
“We need a leader,” he said. “There are no leaders.”
The country’s leadership situation has been unsettled for months, first by Boris Johnson’s messy departure from Downing Street over the summer and now by Ms. Truss’s brief tenure.
Michael Debas, an Uber driver, marveled at the recent dysfunction, as he listened to the news on the radio: “Are you serious?!”
“This is just crazy,” he added, before ticking off the list of recent prime ministers with his fingers. “What’s going on in this country?”
Vid Jerasa, 26, said he was happy to see Ms. Truss go, citing the damage caused by her policy plans and subsequent backtracking.
“If I do badly at my job, I will get fired,” he said.
Ms. Truss, he pointed out, had taken over as prime minister only after winning a Conservative Party leadership contest, meaning she had been chosen by only a sliver of the overall population.
“She wasn’t really elected by the general public,” he said.
Fay Ferguson, an architect, said it was “quite bizarre” to come out of a meeting and find out the country was about to be “completely different.”
Though Ms. Ferguson said she did not support Ms. Truss’s policies, she had a measure of sympathy for her as a person.
“It’s a tough gig being prime minister, but she probably didn’t have much support,” she said. “Boris had all his chums.”
Ms. Truss’s resignation left a sense of uncertainty among many Britons.
“Who wants to throw their hat into the ring now?” Diana Godwin, 61, said as she worked at her fruit and vegetable stall in Brixton, South London. “When they lose the next election, that one will have to be sacked, too.”
Sevin Singh, who was arranging women’s turbans at his small market stall in South London on Thursday, said the future of his business was under threat by Britain’s spiraling cost-of-living crisis. Stability was needed, he said, “but that will take time.”
Ms. Truss, he said, “was just not good enough for the job, and we urgently need someone who is.”
Although Mr. Hunt said he would not run for party leader, the BBC reported, there are a number of potential contenders, including Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor Ms. Truss beat in the last leadership contest. And Mr. Johnson, who has long been politically resilient, could vie for the premiership again.
In East London, Edward Brusnahan said Ms. Truss had simply lacked the vision needed to steer Britain as it lurched from crisis to crisis, and he was relieved to see her go.
“We can move forward now,” he said. “Hopefully they’ll make a better choice this time.”
