Truss was brought down by an economic programme that shattered investor confidence and enraged much of her party.

Truss accepted that she had lost the faith of her party and said she would step down next week, becoming the shortest-serving prime minister in British history.

"Well, it's an absolute disgrace, you know it makes you wonder whether you should vote Conservative again, but I'm delighted to hear that she's finally gone," said Fran Binns, 76, in the market town of Knutsford in northwest England.

Dominic Carroll told Reuters that Truss had made "so many mistakes and so many U-turns", adding a strong politician should take the country by the "scruff of the neck" and sort it out.

"It just had to be done because things were in such a state of chaos, and she obviously had no confidence," said a man who gave his name as Colin.

"The Conservatives had no confidence in her and it was developing into a bit of a shambles, so she had to do something."

Most of the people interviewed in Knutsford, part of the traditionally Conservative constituency of Tatton, were at a loss as to who was fit to replace her. Tatton has delivered a conservative MP in all but one election since 1983.

Connie said she had mixed feelings about Truss's departure.

"I think she's been hounded out, and she's not the first one. I think that's what the media do really ... but you know there's a lot going wrong so, yeah."

Asked who should replace Truss, 75-year-old Jenny Norton replied: "No one I think I've got that much confidence in."

In London, traditionally a Labour stronghold, several people called for a general election to restore stability.

"We need a general election because it's just a cycle of rubbish and they replace rubbish with more rubbish," Craig Randall, 35, told Reuters.

"None of them are fit for the job so yeah, I think we need a general election. We can't just keep having different leaders who ... they're ruining the country at the end of the day."

A women who gave her name as Jill said people had the right to have a say, and were "very, very fed up".

"In this country, we have an unelected head of state, now we have an unelected government. That's not democracy is it?"

(Writing by William Maclean; Editing by Alison Williams)