Liz Truss, the foreign secretary in Johnson’s government, has been nominated as the leader of the ruling Conservative Party and the next prime minister of Britain. The name of the winner was announced on Monday at 5:40 Bangladesh time. He defeated his nearest rival Rishi Sunak by getting 81 thousand 326 votes.
Rishi Sunak got 60 thousand 399 votes.
He takes over as prime minister at a time when the country is going through a crisis in living standards, industrial unrest and recession.
After the winner was announced, Liz Truss was escorted to the stage to a warm welcome. “Thank you to the party for organizing the longest job interview in history,” Truss said on stage. Also thanks to my supporters.
Liz Truss did not forget to pay tribute to other Tory leadership contest candidates, particularly Rishi Sunak. He said the campaign was ‘hard-fought’ and Sunak showed the ‘depth and breadth of talent’ in the party.
Truss also thanked Boris Johnson for standing up to Vladimir Putin, getting Brexit done, developing a Covid vaccine and ‘crushing Jeremy Corbyn’. ‘You are admired from Kiev to Carlisle,’ he told Johnson.
Former finance minister Rishi Sunak and foreign secretary Liz Truss have been vying to become Britain’s prime minister and party leader for weeks after Boris Johnson announced his resignation.
As previously planned, he will travel to Scotland to meet Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday after the announcement of the winning candidate. Then the queen will ask the new leader to form the government.
Truss, the front-runner to replace Johnson, would be the Conservatives’ fourth prime minister since the 2015 election, when the country’s crisis has intensified, if appointed.
Truss, 47, who was foreign secretary under Boris Johnson, has promised to act quickly to tackle Britain’s crisis in living standards. He said within a week he would come up with a plan to tackle rising fuel bills and secure future fuel supply.
He had hinted during his leadership campaign that he would act on the factors that economists believe would lead to inflation. He said he would challenge the convention by canceling the tax hike and cutting other tariffs.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies last month cast doubt on Britain’s next prime minister’s place for big, permanent tax cuts.
(September 5)