Truss will now take over from Boris Johnson who was forced to resign in July over multiple scandals. Source: Number 10, Flickr.
Liz Truss will be Britain’s next prime minister after beating Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership contest.
Truss won comfortably with 57.4 per cent, or 81,000 of the party members, to Sunak’s 42.6 per cent and 60,000 members.
She will take over from Boris Johnson who was forced to resign in July over multiple scandals.
Johnson will formally give his resignation to the Queen at her Balmoral residence, then Truss will visit the monarch to have her appointment confirmed.
She will then return to London to begin tackling the country’s issues including soaring inflation, increasing energy bills and the real possibility of recession.
“I know that our beliefs resonate with the British people: our beliefs in freedom, in the ability to control your own life, in low taxes, in personal responsibility,” she said to an audience in central London.
“I know that’s why people voted for us in such numbers in 2019 and as your party leader I intend to deliver what we promised those voters right across our great country.”
Liz Truss inherits a deeply divided Conservative Party after a campaign that saw both sides engaging in bitter personal attacks.
She becomes the third female UK prime minister, preceded by Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
Rishi Sunak will not be offered a role in Liz Truss’s cabinet which is a break from the tradition of most unsuccessful leadership contenders receiving a cabinet offer.
On Monday, Sunak told the BBC that the cabinet was “not something I’m thinking about” and his allies have indicated he is preparing to wait, believing Truss will be proven wrong in her plans to cut taxes instead of first controlling inflation.
It is believed her picks for the great Offices of State in her cabinet are likely to be Kwasi Kwarteng for her chancellor, James Cleverly for foreign secretary, and Suella Braverman as home secretary.
The expected appointments would mean there will be no white men in the four great offices of state for the first time.
