Liz Truss told Downing Street staff she was “relieved it’s over” as she prepared to resign amid a storm of political chaos, it has been claimed.
The prime minister will this week walk out of No 10 Downing Street with a record as Britain’s shortest-serving leader.
Her brief tenure has been marred by the fallout from her mini-budget, humiliating U-turns and a stark lack of stability.
Ms Truss spent her final weekend as prime minister at Chequers, the Buckinghamshire manor used by sitting leaders and their guests.
The prime minister’s staff are said to have grown emotional as they watched her prepare her resignation speech last Thursday.
A source quoted in The Mail on Sunday said Ms Truss reassured them she was not bitter about the end of her leadership.
“Don't worry, I'm relieved it's over,” she reportedly told them, before adding: "At least I've been prime minister.”
Ms Truss became the third female prime minister of the UK when she was sworn in by Queen Elizabeth II on September 6. Two days later the monarch died.
While Ms Truss will remain as an MP, it is unlikely she will be given a job in her successor’s Cabinet anytime soon.
It is convention that the outgoing prime minister announces a resignation honours list, but it remains unclear whether she will do so given the short length of her service.
Boris Johnson's list is yet to be released.
A reform campaigner said any plans for Ms Truss to dish out honours would be a “reward for failure”.
“A seat in the House of Lords should not be a reward for failure,” Willie Sullivan, of the Electoral Reform Society campaign group, said.
“It’s a lifetime appointment to make our laws, not a gift to be handed out by a prime minister as they head out the door.
“If Liz Truss chooses to pack the Lords with new peers on leaving office, it will only further damage Westminster’s legitimacy at a time when public faith in politics is already stretched to the limit.”
There are currently about 800 members of the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Britain’s Parliament. The majority of these are life peers.
It is tradition for departing prime ministers to create new life peerages, but as these are often handed to political staff and former advisers, they are rarely without controversy.
Mr Sullivan called for a “smaller, elected House of Lords, where lawmakers are chosen by the people they serve not hand-picked by the prime minister of the day”.
“It’s time to end this farce and deliver the democratic second chamber our country needs,” he said.
Liz Truss through the years - in pictures
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British Prime Minister Liz Truss announces her resignation, outside No 10 Downing Street, London. AP -
Liz Truss during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons in London, addressing Parliament for the first time since abandoning her disastrous tax-slashing economic policies. AFP -
Liz Truss walks off stage after delivering her keynote speech at the Conservative Party annual conference at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham in October. PA -
Liz Truss meets US President Joe Biden during the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September. AP -
King Charles during his first audience in September with Ms Truss at Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth. Getty Images -
Labour leader Keir Starmer and Liz Truss pay their respects after the service and procession for the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II into Westminster Hall, London, in September. PA -
Ms Truss is welcomed by staff in Downing Street as she enters the famous prime ministerial offices for the first time in September. Photo: Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street -
Queen Elizabeth II greets the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, Ms Truss, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland in September. The queen invited Ms Truss to become prime minister and form a new government. Getty Images -
New Conservative Party leader and Britain's Prime Minister-elect Liz Truss delivers a speech after being announced the winner of the Tory Party leadership contest in central London on September 5, 2022. Ms Truss is the UK's third female prime minister following Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher. AFP -
Liz Truss meets supporters as she arrives to attend a Conservative leadership election hustings at the NEC, Birmingham, in August. AP -
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss take part in the BBC Leadership debate at Victoria Hall in Hanley in July. Getty Images -
Liz Truss playing pool during a visit to the Onside Future Youth Zone in London in August 2022. PA -
Boris Johnson and Ms Truss arriving for an extraordinary summit at Nato headquarters in Brussels, in March 2022. AFP -
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ms Truss arrive for talks in Moscow in February 2022. AP -
Ms Truss in Red Square during a visit to Moscow in February 2022. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Ms Truss meeting European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic (not seen) for talks in central London on the Northern Ireland Protocol on 11th February 2022. PA -
Ms Truss with Marise Payne, the Australian minister of foreign affairs, at Government House in Sydney, Australia, in January 2022. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Liz Truss hosts Vice President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic at Chevening House in January 2022 to discuss the Northern Ireland protocol. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Ms Truss visits British troops in Estonia as they operate alongside other Nato troops in Tapa in November 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Liz Truss walks through the old town in Tallinn, Estonia, in November 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Ms Truss greeting Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, in November 2021. PA -
Ms Truss at the Red Fort in New Delhi during a trip to India in October 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
The British foreign secretary on the Plaza de la Constitucion in Mexico City, during a trip to Mexico in September 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Queen Elizabeth II greeting Ms Truss at a reception for international business and investment leaders at Windsor Castle in October 2021. PA -
Liz Truss with Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, in New York, in September 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Ms Truss on a morning jog over Brooklyn Bridge in New York in September 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Former Chancellor Philip Hammond, centre, holding his red ministerial box outside 11, Downing Street, flanked by Treasury colleagues Ms Truss and Mel Stride in October 2018. PA -
Ms Truss, then secretary of state for justice, being escorted around HMP Brixton by prison governor David Bamford in November 2016. PA -
Ms Truss as she became the first woman ever to hold the role of Lord Chancellor, arriving at the Royal Courts of Justice before being installed in July 2016. PA -
In April 2016, the former environment secretary Liz Truss listening to former chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne (not seen) during his speech at the National Composites Centre in Bristol. PA -
When she was environment minister, Ms Truss visited the bridge over the River Wharfe in Tadcaster, which collapsed after heavy flooding in December 2015. Getty Images -
Addressing the Conservative party conference in Birmingham in 2014 when she was secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs. Getty Images -
Mr Truss on the Sawnnington Farm to Fork stand at the Norfolk Food Festival at the Houses Of Parliament in October 2011. PA -
Conservative Parliamentary candidate for South-West Norfolk Elizabeth Truss, while canvassing in the village of West Walton during the 2010 General Election campaign. PA -
The former Conservative Shadow Home Secretary, Dominic Grieve, centre, speaking at the launch Reform's Lawful Society report on the nature of crime and the incentives in the criminal justice system while Ms Truss looks on, in September 2008. PA -
Former Conservative Leader William Hague meeting conservative candidate for Calder valley Ms Truss, during the General Election Campaign for 2005. PA
