Liz Truss was appointed Britain’s next prime minister by Queen Elizabeth II at the Balmoral estate in Scotland, shortly after Boris Johnson met the monarch to formally offer his resignation.
Liz Truss will be the third woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May. However, the key cabinet posts will see no white man.
Liz Truss defeated rival Rishi Sunak with 81,326 votes to 60,399 among party members. Truss vowed “bold” action to confront the biting economic crisis. “We need to show that we will deliver over the next two years. I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy,” Truss said after the result was announced.
“I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long-term issues we have on energy supply.”
Long the front-runner in the race to replace Johnson, Truss will become the Conservatives’ fourth prime minister since a 2015 election.
It further reported that her rival, Rishi Sunak, is not expected to be offered a job in her cabinet, a break from the tradition whereby most unsuccessful leadership contenders have been offered posts.
Truss campaigned on a platform of slashing taxes and bulldozing bureaucratic “orthodoxy”, particularly in the finance ministry where she once worked.
Truss faces a long, costly and difficult to-do list, which opposition lawmakers say is the result of 12 years of a poor Conservative government. Several have called for an early election – something Truss has said she will not allow.
