Liz Truss has been named as Britain’s next prime minister on Monday, winning a leadership race for the governing Conservative party at a time when the country faces a cost of living crisis, industrial unrest and a recession.
She wasn’t the top choice of Conservative Party lawmakers, and a majority of Brits tell pollsters she will be a “poor” or “terrible” prime minister, but Truss was the favorite among the Tory activists who selected the leader of their party and Britain in a vote announced Monday.
The new prime minister will be formally appointed by Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday, after Johnson meets with the monarch in Scotland to tender his resignation. Johnson, who has acted as a caretaker for the past few months, was laid low by a succession of scandals that crescendoed in the first half of this year. He lost the support of many fellow conservative legislators, and indeed many ministers in his own government, which forced him to resign.
The new leader will enter 10 Downing Street later Tuesday, and will immediately face responsibility for a rapidly escalating energy crisis in Britain, with both consumers and companies facing record high gas and electricity costs thanks to the war in Ukraine, and the corresponding rise in inflation threatening to tip the country into a major recession.
Truss, who has been dubbed “PM in waiting” by one British newspaper, said in an interview with the BBC this weekend that she will formulate proposals to combat this economic challenge within days, and is aiming to “act immediately.”
