LONDON (AP) — British Home Secretary Suella Braverman left her job on Wednesday, the second senior minister in a week to leave Prime Minister Liz Truss’ government.
It was not immediately clear whether she quit or was fired.
Braverman, appointed less than two months ago, is a popular figure on the ruling Conservative Party’s right wing and a champion of more restrictive immigration policies.
Truss fired her Treasury chief, Kwasi Kwarteng, on Friday after the economic package the pair drew up spooked financial markets.
Truss described herself as “a fighter and not a quitter” Wednesday as she faced down a hostile opposition and fury from her own Conservative Party over her botched economic plan.
Yet the grim faces of Conservative lawmakers behind her in the House of Commons suggested that Truss faces an uphill struggle to save her job.
Truss attended her first session of Prime Minister’s Questions since newly appointed Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt ripped up the tax-cutting package unveiled by her new government less than a month ago.
She apologized to Parliament and admitted she had made mistakes during her short tenure as the U.K.’s head of government, but insisted that by changing course she had “taken responsibility and made the right decisions in the interest of the country’s economic stability.”
Opposition lawmakers shouted “Resign!” as she spoke.
Asked by opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, “Why is she still here?” Truss retorted: “I am a fighter and not a quitter. I have acted in the national interest to make sure that we have economic stability.”
A package of unfunded tax cuts that Truss’ government announced on Sept. 23 sparked turmoil on financial markets, hammering the value of the pound and increasing the cost of U.K. government borrowing. The Bank of England was forced to intervene to prevent the crisis from spreading to the wider economy and putting pension funds at risk.
Under intense political and economic pressure, Truss last week fired her ally Kwarteng as Treasury chief, replacing him with Cabinet veteran Hunt.
On Monday Hunt scrapped almost all of Truss’ tax cuts, along with her flagship energy policy and her promise of no public spending cuts.
