Liz Truss is the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Truss will take over for Boris Johnson, who resigned in July after several scandals.
She is the third female Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, following Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
She thanked “my friend” Johnson in her speech. “You completed Brexit. You crushed Jeremy Corbyn. You distributed the vaccine and stood up to Putin.”
Truss, the former Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs, and Rishi Sunak, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, were both considered frontrunners for the position (pictured above). They are both Conservative Party legislators (MPs).
The announcement was made at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster, where Conservative Party members gathered after voting for their preferred candidate.
Truss will become the Conservative Party’s new leader and the country’s next Prime Minister. Members of the public in the United Kingdom vote for local party candidates rather than the party’s leader; the party then elects a leader.
If the party is in power, the leader is appointed Prime Minister; if the party is not in control, the leader is assigned Leader of the Opposition.
Over the summer, the two politicians emerged as frontrunners in the race to replace Johnson. Johnson was effectively forced to resign after appointing disgraced MP Chris Pincher as his deputy chief whip despite being aware of previous sexual misconduct allegations against Pincher.
In the aftermath of the allegations, more than 50 government employees resigned within 48 hours.
The Pincher scandal followed the Partygate scandal, which involved a series of parties held at 10 Downing Street — Johnson’s office and his private residence — and attended by top government officials during the tightest period of the United Kingdom’s lockdown.
Several photographs show the British Prime Minister attending these gatherings.
Johnson announced his resignation on July 7, calling it “the best job in the world.” Today, he will formally submit his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen will then officially appoint Truss as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The new Prime Minister will now be tasked with uniting the party and forming a new cabinet to govern portfolios such as the Home Office, Foreign Office, and Department of Culture, Media, and Sport.
She will also have to deal with some of the country’s most pressing issues, such as rising energy costs and inflation, as well as a growing threat from Putin in Russia.
The television industry in the United Kingdom is also hoping that a change of administration will provide a reprieve for public service broadcaster Channel 4, which culture secretary Nadine Dorries had planned to privatize under Johnson.
Truss is widely expected to succeed Dorries as Culture Secretary.
