Former Secretary of State Truss is officially in charge of governance. The 47-year-old takes over the country in a deep crisis. A recession is imminent. Millions of citizens worry about not being able to pay their energy bills.
Liz Truss is Britain’s new Prime Minister. Queen Elizabeth II appointed the 47-year-old to succeed Boris Johnson, who was forced to resign over a series of scandals. She commissioned Balmoral Truss to form a new government at Castle, Buckingham Palace said. Former incumbent Boris Johnson had previously submitted his resignation to the Queen.
The Conservative Party had elected Truss as the new leader and thus head of government, as the Tories are currently in the majority in the House of Commons. Truss is the third woman to lead the British government, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
She is moving into 10 Downing Street at a critical time: Great Britain is faced with runaway inflation and threatens to plunge into recession. Millions of Britons fear not being able to pay their electricity and gas bills in the upcoming winter. There are also uncertainties due to the war in Ukraine, the corona pandemic and Brexit. Truss has promised tax cuts and said it will come up with a plan to deal with the energy crisis as one of its first actions.
As in the election among the 200,000 party members, the previous foreign minister prevailed over her rival, ex-finance minister Rishi Sunak. Sunak and Truss had previously prevailed in several rounds of voting by the Conservative MPs – among these, however, Sunak was still the clear favourite.