Boris Johnson’s successor as prime minister has been announced as Liz Truss.
Truss beat former chancellor Rishi Sunak in the competition to become the next Conservative leader.
The result was announced at a ceremony in Westminster attended by Conservative grandees, MPs and peers. She will take-up office on Tuesday.
Truss gained 81,326 votes, compared to Sunak’s 60, 399 (57.4% Truss, 42.6% Sunak). This is a smaller lead than Johnson, Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith received in the last three members votes for the Conservative party leadership.
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Truss was expected to emerge victorious as the lengthy leadership contest drew to a close. Her rival, former chancellor Sunak, had previously signalled he knew he had lost, saying his job “now is just to support a Conservative government”.
In her short, televised acceptance speech, Truss said:
“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 with the long term issues that we have on energy supply. And I will deliver on the National Health Service”.
“We will deliver, we will deliver, and we will deliver”.
She will now address MPs in Parliament and speak to staff in Conservative HQ.
Now that a new leader has been elected, Boris Johnson has formally resigned. As per tradition, he is expected to make a speech outside Downing Street before visiting the Queen to formally agree his resignation.
The new Conservative leader will be invited to meet the Queen, who will formally ask her to form a Government.
This historic event, known as ‘kissing hands’, traditionally takes place at Buckingham Palace, but this year will take place at Balmoral.
Details of a new Cabinet are then expected to be announced on Tuesday evening, with the new PM facing the House of Commons for the first time on Wednesday. There is already speculation as to who will take the top-spots in Truss’s Cabinet.
The new PM faces a daunting inbox, with a cost of living crisis and inflation at a 40-year high.
Upon moving into Downing Street, Liz Truss has promised to announce further help for people facing energy price rises within a week of taking office. She has also detailed plans to deliver £30bn in tax cuts through an emergency Budget, arguing that the nation’s tax burden is the stumbling-block behind slow economic growth.
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