Falkirk's MPs call for a general election as prime minister resigns

Ms Truss announced that she was stepping down as the Conservative Party leader after just 44 days in the job.

The Conservatives will now have another leadership contest to elect their third leader in a matter of months.

Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 backbench committee of Conservative MPs, said it would be possible to conclude a leadership ballot by Friday next week.

Ms Truss has said she would remain in post until a successor formally takes over as party leader and is appointed prime minister by King Charles III.

But the two SNP Westminster representatives for this area now want the country to go to the ballot box.

John McNally, Falkirk MP, said: “We are now entering yet another farcical period of Tory-led mismanagement at Westminster. It’s obvious to everyone that we should have a general election now and let the people who they want to lead the country.”

Meanwhile, Martyn Day, MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk said: “Liz Truss’s time in office may be the shortest premiership in British history however, her resignation is not before time. Her time in charge will go down in history as having reached unprecedented levels of shambolic chaos.“The Tory Party cannot just keep swapping one undemocratically elected prime minister with another, we need a general election now and Scotland needs the option of independence to escape the mayhem of Westminster.”