Liz Truss is the new UK Premier. The former foreign minister has defeated Rishi Sunak in a closely contested race, obtaining 81.326 votes from members of the Conservative party, against 60.399 collected by the former chancellor of the exchequer. So no surprise, Truss' victory had been widely anticipated by most most recent surveys. The Conservative Party result was announced by Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee (the body that brings together Tory MPs not involved in Government). Thus ends the era Boris Johnson, ousted by his own MPs earlier this summer, and who will tender his resignation to the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday 6 September, while Truss will visit the monarch at her Highlands residence shortly afterwards, to confirm her appointment.
Truss is there third woman in UK history to lead the British government after Margaret Thatcher and more recently Theresa May. But the euphoria of victory will quickly give way to the harsh reality of the economic challenges that will await the new British prime minister: inflation now in double digits, at its highest level in four decades, driven by soaring energy bills for households, the prospect of an autumn of strikes, the NHS and ambulance services on their knees, the conflict in Ukraine showing no signs of abating and the ongoing dispute with Brussels over how to implement the Brexit in Northern Ireland.
Truss: "We will deliver results in the next two years"
“I will carry out a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy. I will take care of the energy crisis, tackling citizens' bills, but also the long-term problems we have on energy supply", said Liz Truss, new leader of the Tories and UK Premier in a speech following the result, and then made tribute to Bojo: “I also want to thank our outgoing leader, my friend Boris Johnson. Boris, you have completed Brexit. You destroyed Jeremy Corbyn. You have prepared the vaccine and you have faced Vladimir Putin ”.
And finally: "We'll deliver, deliver, deliver". “And we will win the elections in 2024”.
Truss new UK Premier: the Boris Johnson era ends
The process of the next political steps in London has already been planned: after the appointment at 13.30 pm in London, the new leader of the Tories is expected by the Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral, in Scotland, from where the sovereign will close the experience of the Johnson government and ask the new Tory leader to form a new government. On 7 September, the new Premier is then expected in the House of Commons for the first Prime Minister's Questions: according to Sunak, the British government should approve some very urgent maneuvers in a few months and then call the early general elections, much earlier than expected (January 2025). This is exactly what the Labor Party is aiming for Sir Keir Starner, favorite in all polls since Bojo's post-Brexit Tory era.
