47-year-old Liz Truss will only be the third female prime minister of the UK.
New Delhi:
Liz Truss was named today as Britain’s next prime minister, winning the ruling Conservative Party’s internal leadership contest at a time when the country was facing an industrial unrest and recession.
After an often bad-tempered and divisive party leadership contest that summer following Boris Johnson’s resignation in July, he defeated his rival, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, by 81,326 votes to 60,399.
“We need to show that we will perform in the next two years. I will present a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy,” Truss said after the results were announced.
“I will deal with the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long-term issues we have on energy supply.”
47-year-old Liz Truss will be only the third female prime minister of Britain after Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher
The announcement triggers the start of a handover from Boris Johnson, who was forced to announce his resignation in July after months of scandal that eroded support for his administration.
He will travel to Scotland to meet with Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday to officially resign. The truce would follow him and would be asked by the emperor to form the government.
Long in the race to replace Johnson, Truss would become the Conservatives’ fourth prime minister since the 2015 election.
The country has moved from crisis to crisis during that period, and is now facing what is projected to be a protracted recession starting with inflation skyrocketing to 10.1% in July.
Truss campaigned on the platform of lowering taxes and bulldozing bureaucratic “conservatives”, especially in the finance ministry where he once worked.
The truce faces a long, costly and difficult-to-do list, which opposition lawmakers say is the result of 12 years of poor Conservative government. Many have called for early elections – the truss has said it will not allow it.