Ricky Gervais and Nish Kumar among stars to react to Liz Truss resigning after six weeks

Comedians Ricky Gervais, Nish Kumar and David Baddiel are among the celebrities to lead reactions to Liz Truss’s resignation after just six weeks as prime minister.

In a speech outside Downing Street on Thursday 20 October, Truss announced that her replacement would be found within the next week, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in UK history.

The politician’s resignation came after 15 Tory MPs publicly called for her to step down, following a chaotic six weeks that included a disastrous mini-budget, the firing of former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and the resignation of former home secretary Suella Braverman.

Reacting to the news, Gervais shared a picture of himself making a speech outside No 10, with the caption: “And it wouldn’t even be in the top 10 weirdest news stories of the year.”

Piers Morgan tweeted: “What an absolute shambles.”

Comedian Baddiel posted: “That speech contained the words ‘to take advantage of the opportunities of Brexit’. That’s the key. The first actual real attempt to make the UK Singapore-on-Thames spectacularly failed. The entire s***ty s*** show needs to be seen in that light.”

Screenwriter Jack Thorne wrote: “People are going to die while this Conservative party attempts to fix itself. Constitutional right is not the same as legitimacy.”

Comic Kumar joked: “Even Quibi lasted longer than her.” Quibi was a very short-lived American short-form streaming platform that launched in April 2020 and was shut down by that December.

Referring tothe Daily Star’s experiment to see whether a lettuce would outlast Truss’s premiership, comedian Sofie Hagen posted: “Hang on, I have only briefly skimmed the news – is the lettuce now our new prime minister?”

Actor Daniel Mays said: “Bats*** crazy. First Boris, now this. How long did the @Conservatives contest take? All the TV debates. All the speeches. All the bulls***. She lasted 6 WEEKS! Meantime our country goes from bad to worse. Call a General Election now. We need change. We need leadership @UKLabour.”

Comic Alistair Green joked: “Goodness me these antics from the government are like something from an episode of the satirical television show the thick of things for heavens sake!”

Radio presenter Alice Levine tweeted: “Was Truss even in the flat at No 10 long enough for BT Broadband to give her an appointment to connect the internet? PM on a dongle, it’s no life.”

Actor Kathy Burke retweeted a post from deputy Labour leader Angela Raynor, which said: “Britain now faces a clear and unavoidable choice – stability and strong government with Labour, or yet more chaos with the Tories.”

Rishi Sunak, Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt and Ben Wallace have all been touted as possible successors to Truss.

Read The Independent’s live updates on the story here.