CENTRAL Devon MP Mel Stride is once again backing former Chancellor Rishi Sunak to be the next Prime Minister, following the resignation of Liz Truss.

He appealed to his Conservative colleagues to ‘draw a line under the events of recent weeks’ after Ms Truss stepped down yesterday.

Liz Truss resigned as leader in a televised address outside 10 Downing Street, saying she could no longer deliver the mandate members had elected her on.

This follows a U-turn on her controversial mini-budget.

A leadership contest will now take place in the coming week, with Ms Truss staying as Prime Minister until her successor is in place.

Mr Stride said: ‘I thank Liz for her service as Prime Minister. She had a bold vision for our country but not one that she was able to deliver. We have now drawn a line under the events of recent weeks and I look forward to a new leader to take the country forward. I hope that that person is Rishi Sunak.’

Ms Truss had been Prime Minister for just 44 days.

Delivering her resignation speech outside 10 Downing Street, she said: ‘I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability. Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills and our country had been held back for too long by low economic growth.

‘I was elected by the Conservative Party with a mandate to change this. We delivered on energy bills and on cutting National Insurance and we set out a vision for a lower tax, high growth economy that would have taken advantage of the freedoms of Brexit.

‘I recognise now that given the situation, I haven’t delivered on the mandate which I was elected on by the Conservative Party. I have spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I’m resigning as leader of the Conservative Party and this morning I spoke to the chairman of the 1922 committee Sir Graham Brady and we agreed that there would be a leadership election to be completed within the next week. I will remain as Prime Minister until a successor is chosen.’