The United Kingdom on Sep 5, 2022, announced Liz Truss as the new leader of the governing Conservative Party, taking power as Britain’s next prime minister.
The result was announced at 12.30pm after foreign minister Liz Truss and her rival, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, spent the summer rallying support among the Conservative Party members who cast the final vote.
Liz Truss will become the next prime minister of Britain, taking over from Boris Johnson at a time of economic and political upheaval in the United Kingdom.
She wasn’t the top choice of Conservative Party lawmakers, and a majority of Brits tell pollsters she will be a “poor” or “terrible” prime minister, but Truss was the favorite among the Tory activists who selected the leader of their party and Britain in a vote announced Monday.
Truss becomes the 15th PM since Queen Elizabeth II took the throne. She also becomes UK’s third female prime minister following Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher.
The 47-year-old has consistently been ahead of 42-year-old Sunak in polling among the estimated 200,000 Tory members eligible to vote.
The leadership contest began in July after Johnson announced his resignation following a slew of scandals and resignations from his government. Postal and online voting closed on Friday after eight weeks of campaigning that Truss described to the BBC as “the longest job interview in history”.
The UK is gripped by its worst cost-of-living crisis in generations, with inflation soaring into double digits and energy prices shooting up on the back of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Millions say that with bills set to rise by 80 percent from October – and even higher from January – they face a painful choice between eating and heating this winter, according to surveys.
“If I’m elected prime minister, I will act immediately on bills and energy supply,” Truss told the BBC on Sunday while declining to give details.
“Within one week I will make sure there is an announcement on how we are going to deal with the issue,” she added.
Truss campaigned on a promise to slash taxes and prioritize economic growth, just as Britain is tipped to enter recession later this year.
She said Sunday she would “within a month present a full plan for how we are going to reduce taxes” and “get the British economy going”.
Truss became foreign minister a year ago after holding a series of ministerial posts in departments including education, international trade, and justice. She began her political journey as a teenage member of the centrist Liberal Democrats before switching to the right-wing Conservatives.
In 2016, she campaigned for the UK to remain in the European Union but quickly switched allegiance when Britons backed Brexit. Her dress sense and love of photo opportunities – posing in a tank in Estonia and wearing a fur hat in Moscow – have earned her comparisons to Tory icon Thatcher.
Her sometimes stiff style has become visibly more relaxed and allies have sought to soften her image, revealing her love of karaoke and socializing.
On Tuesday, Johnson will deliver a farewell speech at Downing Street.
He will then formally tender his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II, after which she will appoint his successor in so-called kissing of hands ceremony.
Congratulations Liz Truss!
