Politicians across Richmond are demanding an immediate General Election with the shock resignation of Liz Truss.

The borough is a Lib-Dem stronghold with control of the Council and two MPs and the electoral maths suggest the Tories would have zero chance of claiming a seat.

The leader of the Council, Gareth Roberts, welcomed the news of the PM's resignation saying: "Good. She should never have had the job in the first place.

"But now is not the time for a leadership election, the time has come for a General Election now!"

The Richmond Park MP, Sarah Olney, said: "The Liz Truss resignation changes nothing. The only way out of this mess is a General Election."

Twickenham and Teddington MP, Munira Wilson, joined the clamour for an election, saying: "The scenes we have witnessed in Westminster this week have left me utterly gobsmacked. I have never seen anything like it.

"With Liz Truss's resignation, the Government has literally fallen apart at the seams.

 "What angers me most is that all of this chaos is an unforgivable distraction from the real issues that the people of this country are facing. Public services like the NHS are on their knees, and hard-working people are worried about their mortgages, their energy bills and their futures.

advertisement

 "So much damage has already been done, and it's struggling families and pensioners who will pay the price.

 "We don't need another Conservative Prime Minister. We need a general election to oust the Conservatives and deliver the change that people deserve."

The Lib-Dem leader and Kingston MP, Ed Davey, said: "We don't need another Conservative Prime Minister lurching from crisis to crisis.

"We need a General Election now and the Conservatives out of power."

Lib-Dem councillor, James Chard, said: "It's perfectly clear (even, surely, to their remaining supporters) that the Conservatives just can't form a functioning Government which can claim a mandate.

"The idea that this could go on … is ludicrous."

Following her resignation, Ms Truss will be the shortest-serving prime minister in history.

The prime minister's downfall started with her former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced his mini-budget a month ago, which prompted weeks of economic turmoil and eventually led to him being sacked last Friday.

advertisement

On Wednesday afternoon, her home secretary, Suella Braverman then quit after saying she had breached security rules by sending a policy message to a colleague over her personal email by mistake.