'Catastrophic illiteracy': Russia revels in Truss resignation, as Brit opposition demands election
LONDON - Barely moments after British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced she would be resigning from her post, as well as leader of the Conservative Party, opposition leader Keir Starmer on Thursday demanded an immediate general election.
"The Tories cannot respond to their latest shambles by yet again simply clicking their fingers and shuffling the people at the top without the consent of the British people. We need a general election - now," the Labour party leader said.
The Conservative Party "has shown it no longer has a mandate to govern", he added.
"After 12 years of Tory failure, the British people deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos. Now, they have crashed the economy so badly that people are facing £500 (S$800) a month extra on their mortgages. The damage they have done will take years to fix."
Russia's foreign ministry on Thursday welcomed the departure of Ms Truss, saying she was a disgrace of a leader who would be remembered for her "catastrophic illiteracy".
"Britain has never known such a disgrace of a prime minister," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a social media post.
Ms Truss has been the target of withering comments from Moscow since she visited in February as part of a fruitless drive by Western politicians to avert a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The claim of illiteracy appears to refer to that trip, when she was British foreign minister. In a meeting with Russia's veteran foreign minister Sergei Lavrov she appeared to confuse two regions of Russia with Ukraine, triggering widespread mockery in Russian media.
Russian officials took a dim view of Ms Truss' premiership from the outset and have revelled in her numerous gaffes. Upon her appointment in September, Mr Lavrov said Ms Truss did not know how to compromise and questioned how the British leader could say she did not know whether French President Emmanuel Macron was a "friend or foe".
The French President said on Thursday it was important that Britain found "stability as soon as possible", as he commented on the resignation.
"We want, above all else, stability," Mr Macron told reporters as he arrived at a European Union summit in Brussels.
"On a personal level, I am always sad to see a colleague go."
Ms Zakharova also on Thursday mocked Ms Truss' high-profile photo shoot in Estonia last year, where she donned a flak jacket and helmet to ride in a tank during a visit to British troops stationed in the Baltic country.
Relations between Moscow and London had sunk to their lowest level in decades even before Russia invaded Ukraine, on the back of the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the British city of Salisbury in 2018.
The United States will have a close relationship with whomever replaces Ms Truss after she announced her resignation on Thursday, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said.
Mr Klaine, in an interview on MSNBC, added that US President Joe Biden would issue a statement later on Thursday. - REUTERS