As expected, Liz Truss will become the new party leader of the Tories and subsequently also Prime Minister of Great Britain. She follows Boris Johnson, as the party announced on Monday. Her opponent, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, gets nothing.
Boris Johnson will be succeeded by Liz Truss. In a final vote, the Conservative Party chose the 47-year-old as its new leader and thus also as the next head of government, as the party announced in London on Monday. Ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak was only second.
While the previous foreign minister received more than 81,000 votes, Sunak got around 60,000 votes, as the head of the responsible parliamentary group committee, Graham Brady, announced on Monday in London.
In her first speech immediately after being elected leader of the Conservative Party, the 47-year-old called the incumbent a friend. Truss said on Monday in London that Johnson had done Brexit, fought off the Labor Party, ensured the rapid introduction of the corona vaccine and opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The previous foreign minister was convinced that her party’s goals would be supported by the majority of Britons. According to her, the Tories will win the general election planned for 2024. “We will deliver, we will deliver, we will deliver,” Truss said. Polls currently see the opposition Labor Party clearly in the lead.
Up to 200,000 party members have been able to vote by post or online over the past few weeks on who will lead the new government and move into Downing Street. Sunak and Truss had previously prevailed in several rounds of voting by the Conservative MPs – among these, however, Sunak was still the clear favourite.
Truss is assigned to the right wing of the party. In the inner-party election campaign, the 47-year-old was particularly convincing with her plan to immediately lower taxes despite enormously high inflation. She also scored points with the party base – which is significantly older, more male and wealthier than the average British population – with a confrontational line towards the EU and populist statements about refugees, left-wingers, environmental activists and social minorities.
During the election campaign, Sunak accused his rival of telling “fairy tales” with her economic plans and portrayed himself as a politician who is not afraid to speak unpleasant truths in times of crisis. He would not consider tax cuts until inflation is under control again.
After the announcement of the winner, the change at the top of the British government will take place on Tuesday. Johnson will address the population one last time as prime minister and then resign from office.
Both he and his successor then travel to Scotland and are received one after the other by Queen Elizabeth II, who is spending her summer holidays at her country estate, Balmoral Castle. The fact that the audiences will take place there and not in London’s Buckingham Palace is extremely unusual and has to do with the mobility problems of the now 96-year-old monarch.
Queen Elizabeth II will then appoint Truss as Prime Minister. This will make Truss the third woman to lead the British government after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
