British Foreign Minister Liz Truss was on Monday named as the nation’s new leader, replacing scandal-scarred Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Truss, 47, was picked by her ruling right-wing Conservative Party to be the UK’s third female prime minister and the fourth leader of the party’s government since a general election in 2015.
“Thank you for putting your trust in me to lead and deliver for our great country,” she tweeted soon after the announcement.
“I will take bold action to get all of us through these tough times, grow our economy, and unleash the United Kingdom’s potential.”
Truss was handed control of the nation after a leadership contest in which only about 170,000 dues-paying members of the Conservative Party were allowed to vote.
Truss received 81,326 votes, compared to former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak’s 60,399 votes.
Her appointment ends a two-month power vacuum sparked by Johnson’s July 7 announcement that he was stepping down amid insurmountable backlash to a series of scandals, most notably office parties defying his own government’s strict lockdown rules.
Following UK tradition, Johnson will meet with Queen Elizabeth II to officially tender his resignation.
The meeting will take place at the queen’s Balmoral estate in Scotland, where the monarch is spending her summer amid ongoing health and mobility concerns, rather than Buckingham Palace in London.
Truss will follow him so that the queen can formally appoint Truss as Britain’s prime minister on Tuesday.
She will take the helm at a time when the country faces a cost of living crisis, industrial unrest, and a recession triggered by sky-rocketing inflation, which is above 10% for the first time since the 1980s.
Source: nypost.com