Liz Truss says she was relieved when resigning as UK's prime minister

She will depart No 10 this week to make way for her successor

Liz Truss announces her resignation as UK Prime Minister outside 10 Downing Street in London. 'The National' looks at her brief time in power. PA

Chairman of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady speaks to the media in London following Liz Truss's announcement of her resignation. Reuters

Liz Truss and her husband Hugh O'Leary walk back inside 10 Downing Street following her resignation statement. AFP

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 speaks to Grant Shapps at Downing Street as he is appointed Home Secretary, after the resignation of Suella Braverman. Photo: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street

A mural by artist Ciaran Gallagher in Belfast is updated to reflect Liz Truss's current political troubles. PA

Britain's new Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt announcing tax and spending measures at the House of Commons in London, with Liz Truss sitting on the bench behind him. AFP

Liz Truss gives a speech after sacking Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor of the exchequer. Reuters

A protest by climate change group Extinction Rebellion in central London. Ms Truss has said the group is part of an 'anti-growth coalition' with trade unions and the main opposition Labour Party. AFP

Ms Truss has come under increasing pressure during her short time as prime minister. AFP

An Extinction Rebellion protest outside Downing Street on the day Mr Kwarteng was removed from the government. AP

Ms Truss with members of the England women's football team and the European Championship trophy in Teddington, south-west London. Getty

Ms Truss arrives for a meeting of the European Political Community at Prague Castle in the Czech Republic. AP

Ms Truss and her husband Hugh O'Leary wave after her keynote speech at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. AP

Liz Truss gives a speech at the Conservative Party Conference. EPA

Ms Truss meets with Mr Kwarteng, chancellor of the exchequer at the time. Photo: Andrew Parsons / CCHQ

Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham. AFP

Ms Truss meets US President Joe Biden for talks at the UN headquarters in New York. PA

Ms Truss delivers a speech at the 77th session of the General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York. AP

The British prime minister holds a bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in New York. Reuters

Ms Truss meets French President Emmanuel Macron at the UN headquarters in New York. Reuters

Ms Truss speaks to the media during her visit to the Empire State building in New York. AP

Britain's new leader speaks during the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth at Westminster Abbey, London. PA

Ms Truss and her husband Hugh O'Leary observe a minute's silence at Number 10 Downing Street following the death of the queen. Reuters

Britain's Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Truss leave after a service for the reception of Queen Elizabeth's coffin at Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster. AFP

Ms Truss joins the Speaker Lindsay Hoyle and selected MPs to take the oath and swear allegiance to King Charles III in the House of Commons chamber. PA

King Charles during his first audience with Ms Truss at Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth. Getty Images

Ms Truss gives a reading during a service of prayer and reflection, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth, at St Paul's Cathedral in London. Getty Images

The British prime minister makes a statement outside 10 Downing Street in London following the queen's death. Bloomberg

Ms Truss speaking during her first weekly Prime Minister's Questions session at the House of Commons in London. AFP

Front pages of a selection of British national newspapers, each leading with a story about Ms Truss becoming Britain's new prime minister. AFP

People walk past an image in central London of Ms Truss on the side of a protest bus calling for a citizens' assembly. Reuters

Ms Truss holds her first Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street. Reuters

Ms Truss speaks at Downing Street on the day she took over as prime minister from Boris Johnson. EPA

Ms Truss poses with her husband Hugh O'Leary at Downing Street before entering as prime minister for the first time. EPA

Ms Truss is welcomed by staff in Downing Street as she enters the famous prime ministerial offices for the first time. Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

New Health Secretary Therese Coffey and Number 10 staff shelter from a downpour as they wait for Ms Truss to arrive in Downing Street. PA

Liz Truss makes a speech outside 10 Downing Street, London, after meeting Queen Elizabeth II and accepting her invitation to become prime minister and form a new government. PA

Queen Elizabeth II greets the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, Ms Truss, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The queen invited Ms Truss to become prime minister and form a new government. Getty Images

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