British Foreign Minister, Liz Truss, elected PM

Liz Truss was named Britain’s next Prime Minister on Monday, winning a leadership race for the governing Conservative Party.

Truss won in a vote of Conservative Party members after weeks of an often bad-tempered and divisive leadership contest that saw the foreign minister face off against former finance minister, Rishi Sunak.

The announcement triggers the start of a handover from Boris Johnson, who was forced to announce his resignation in July after months of scandal saw support for his administration drain away.

He will travel to Scotland to meet Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday to officially tender his resignation.

47-year-old Truss is expected to follow him and be asked to form a government by the monarch.

Truss, the front-runner in the race to replace Johnson, will become the Conservatives’ fourth prime minister since a 2015 election.

READ ALSO: Boris Johnson quits as UK Prime Minister

Over that period the country has been buffeted from crisis to crisis, and now faces what is forecast to be a long recession triggered by sky-rocketing inflation which hit 10.1% in July.

Truss, a foreign minister under Boris Johnson, has promised to act quickly to tackle Britain’s cost of living crisis, saying that within a week she will come up with a plan to tackle rising energy bills and securing future fuel supplies.

She has signalled during her leadership campaign that she would challenge convention by scrapping tax increases and cutting other levies in a move some economists said would fuel inflation.

Liz Truss faces a long, costly and difficult to-do list, which opposition lawmakers say is the result of 12 years of poor Conservative government.

Several people have also called for an early election – something Truss has said she will not allow.

Truss has said she will appoint a strong cabinet, dispensing with what one source close to her called a “presidential-style” of governing, adding that she will have to work hard to win over some lawmakers in her party who had backed Sunak in the race.

The Star