Dan Kitwood | News Getty Images | Getty Images LONDON — After a close contest, the country’s ruling Conservative Party on Monday chose Liz Truss as its new leader and the UK’s new prime minister. Truss, until now the UK’s foreign secretary, beat rival Rishi Sunak, the country’s former finance minister, to win the leadership race. With Conservative Party members asked to vote for their favorite candidate in recent weeks, 81,326 members voted for Truss while 60,399 members voted for Sunak. The turnout was 82.6% and, roughly, Truss got about 57% of the vote while Sunak got 42% of the vote. Truss took to the stage to thank her supporters and seemingly mentioned Boris Johnson, her ‘boyfriend’. Saying she would govern as a Conservative, Truss said she intended to deliver “what we promised voters in 2019” and said she would push forward a “bold plan to cut taxes” and grow Britain’s economy. He said he would also deal with long-term issues related to the country’s energy supply. Truss told delegates she would deliver a victory for the party in the next election expected in 2024. Defeated Rishi Sunak tweeted that it was time for the party to unite behind its new leader. Truss does not automatically become prime minister on Monday, as ritual dictates that the outgoing prime minister (in this case Boris Johnson) must first tender his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II, who then appoints Truss. As the Queen currently resides at her Scottish residence of Balmoral Castle, this event will be held there rather than at Buckingham Palace in London, as the 96-year-old monarch has mobility issues. Johnson and Truss are due to travel to Balmoral on Tuesday and relations between the two politicians are cordial — Truss was among senior ministers who remained loyal to Johnson in the final death spiral of his leadership, which by the end had been overwhelmed from many political controversies and scandals, while other top officials jumped ship. Johnson had been dragging his feet, but after repeated calls to step down, he reluctantly announced on July 7 that he would step down as party leader but stay on while his successor is chosen. When Truss is appointed prime minister, he takes on the biggest challenge of his political career: governing a fractured and divided political party and leading a country facing its biggest cost-of-living crisis in decades, while maintaining support for Ukraine amid an ongoing war. the threshold of Europe. The cost of living crisis and the looming rise in energy bills is likely to be Truss’ priority and she will need to hit the ground running to tackle the immediate pressure on Britons’ pockets, with inflation continuing its upward trend. Truss promised to unveil measures to help struggling Britons within a week of taking office, but has so far ruled out the energy budget — although she may not be able to deliver on that promise. Economists say the package of measures will have to be big, very big, to get the UK out of a winter of crisis. “Once in office, Liz Truss will likely be forced to take more drastic measures to prevent winter supply shortages,” Eurasia Group’s Mujtaba Rahman and Henning Gloystein said in a research note last week. Alongside her “fiscal intervention”, Truss is also likely to unveil an energy package, which although aimed mainly at household consumers, will cover issues such as storage, increasing generation and ensuring Norway’s electricity security in the UK”. “With little political action taken so far, it seems likely that more significant steps will be required during the fall and winter, including non-essential industries being ordered to close temporarily or cuts in public energy use to avoid the worst.” rolling heating or blackouts scenario’, which gave a 70% chance. There is only a 30% chance that the UK “can get through this winter without additional austerity measures to reduce consumption”, the analysts said.
