Liz Truss Britain's shortest-serving prime minister

United Kingdom Prime Minister Liz Truss tendered her resignation on Thursday, 20 October, after spending just 45 days in office.

Truss' announcement, outside 10 Downing Street, follows the near-full evaporation of her political authority, a few weeks after her proposed economic reforms were met with immense criticism, reports BBC.

Truss said that she entered office with "a vision for a low-tax, high-growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit".

"I recognise that, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative party," she said.

As Truss steps down, she becomes the shortest-serving Prime Minister in 300 years.

She is also the least popular prime minister in the history of UK polling, with just 10 per cent of respondents holding a favourable opinion of her, according to a YouGov poll this week, reports The Guardian.

Before Truss, the shortest-serving UK prime minister was the Tory George Canning, who held the job for just 119 days before dying of pneumonia in 1827.

Next in line for the briefest term in 10 Downing Street was Canning's successor Frederick John Robinson, Viscount Goderich who was appointed by King George IV. He lasted just 144 days before quitting because he couldn't solidify the Tory-Whig coalition at the time.

The shortest serving prime minister of the 20th century and the third heir to the brief premiership title was the Conservative Andrew Bonar Law, the only Canadian to have held the job.

He stepped down after 211 days in May 1923 after developing throat cancer. He died shortly after.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home, who became prime minister in October 1963, lasted just 366 days before being ousted in an election by Labour's pipe-smoking Harold Wilson. Douglas-Home's aristocratic background led to conflict with the then all-powerful trade unions.

Sir Anthony Eden lasted just one year and 279 days. He was brought down by the crisis over the Suez Canal. He stepped down claiming ill health, but it is widely thought the real reason was he had misled parliament by backing France and Israel when they invaded Egypt in the 1956 Arab-Israeli war.

The prime minister to claim the shortest premiership prize this century was Labour's Gordon Brown, who managed to stay in power for two years and 318 days.

Brown took over from Tony Blair on 27 June, 2007. But the 2008 financial crisis dogged his tenure, which led to the election of David Cameron in 2010, and then an uninterrupted string of Conservative leaders: Theresa May, Johnson and now Truss.