Liz Truss to take over as U.K.’s next Prime Minister

Liz Truss was announced the leader of the governing Conservative Party and Britain’s next Prime Minister on September 5, taking power at a time when the country faces a cost of living crisis, industrial unrest and a recession.

The Prime Minister-in-waiting Ms. Truss will deliver a plan to lower taxes and boost economic growth, she said after winning the Conservative Party contest.

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“I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy. I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long-term issues we have on energy supply,” Ms. Truss said in a speech following the result.

The 47-year-old senior Cabinet minister was widely expected to clinch the ballot of an estimated 1,60,000 online and postal votes cast by Tory members, ending Mr. Sunak’s historic run as the first member of Parliament of Indian heritage to compete for the top job at 10 Downing Street.

She is the third female Prime Minister in Britain, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.

The result was formally announced by the returning officer of the leadership contest and chair of the Conservative Party’s powerful 1922 Committee of backbench MPs, Sir Graham Brady, at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre near Downing Street.

He said Ms. Truss won 81,326 votes compared to Mr. Sunak’s share of 60,399 votes.

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Mr. Sunak, in his first comments after the results were announced, said the party must now unite behind winner Ms. Truss.

“It’s right we now unite behind the new PM, Liz Truss, as she steers the country through difficult times,” Mr. Sunak said on Twitter.

After weeks of an often bad-tempered and divisive party leadership contest that pitted Ms. Truss against Mr. Sunak, a former finance minister, the announcement triggered the beginning of a handover from Mr. Johnson.

Mr. Johnson was forced to announce his resignation in July after months of scandal and he will travel to Scotland to meet Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday to officially tender his resignation. Ms. Truss will follow him and be asked to form a government.

Long the front-runner in the race to replace Mr. Johnson, Ms. Truss became the Conservatives’ fourth prime minister since a 2015 election. 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.

Below are key quotes from her victory speech:

“I campaigned as a conservative and I will govern as a conservative. My friends, we need to show that we will deliver over the next two years.”

“I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy. I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long term issues we have on energy supply.”

“I also want to thank our outgoing leader, my friend, Boris Johnson. Boris, you got Brexit done. You crushed Jeremy Corbyn. You rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin. You are admired from Kyiv to Carlisle.”

(With Reuters/PTI inputs)