Liz Truss becomes Downing Street's briefest incumbent

Truss was a Liberal Democrat at university before joining the Conservative party

Truss confronted Russia's invasion of Ukraine with characteristic bluntness

Liz Truss is set to become the shortest-serving prime minister in Britain's history, after the public, MPs and the markets comprehensively rejected the self-styled heir to Margaret Thatcher.

Truss's rise to become the UK's third female prime minister inevitably led to comparisons with the first: Thatcher.