Liz Truss is the new leader of the British Conservatives and will succeed Boris Johnson at the head of the government. The official announcement was made on Monday.
Liz Truss was elected with 81,326 votes, while her opponent Rishi Sunak, the initial favourite, was voted in by 60,399 party members.
Truss, 47, the current British Foreign Secretary and also the Minister for Women and Equalities who remained loyal to Boris Johnson until the end when there were dozens of executive resignations in early July, will become Britain’s fourth prime minister since the Brexit referendum in 2016 and the third woman in this position in the history of the United Kingdom, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
Boris Johnson will hand in his resignation to Elizabeth II at the Queen’s summer residence in Balmoral, Scotland, on Tuesday, a first for the 96-year-old sovereign, who has difficulty getting around and will not be coming to London. Johnson’s successor will become the 15th head of government in Elizabeth II’s 70-year reign.
“Friends and colleagues, thank you for trusting me to lead our great Conservative party, the greatest political party on Earth,” were her first words after the result of the vote was announced. The two remained last in the race for the head of the party, in which initially eight candidates signed up. The election system is an elimination one, with each round of voting eliminating the candidate/candidates with the fewest votes, until only two candidates remain, who are voted for by all party members. The leader of the Conservative Party, the party that won the general election, automatically becomes the Prime Minister of Great Britain.”