- Liz Truss meets Queen Elizabeth II
- Liz Truss UK’s new Prime Minister
- Early Life
- Liz Truss Political Career
- UK Economic crisis
- Liz Truss Cabinet
- Task Ahead
Liz Truss meets Queen Elizabeth II
Lizz Truss formally became the UK Prime Minister on Tuesday, September 6 after meeting Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. She took over the office shortly after Boris Johnson tendered his resignation as British PM during his meeting with the Queen. Notably, this is the first time the ceremony of the appointment of British PM took place at Balmoral instead of Buckingham Palace in London. The British monarch is spending her summer holidays in Scotland.
Liz Truss UK's new Prime Minister
Liz Truss is the UK’s 56th prime minister and third female prime minister after Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher. Elizabeth Truss was elected the new prime minister of the UK after she was chosen by the Conservative Party as their leader on September 5, 2022. She defeated former chancellor of the exchequer and Richmond (Yorks) MP Rishi Sunak by over 20,000 votes and bagged 81,326 votes while Rishi Sunak secured 60,399 votes. MP Rishi Sunak, an Indian- origin was leading the race in the initial phase of campaign but later lost support of the Conservative Party.
Early Life
Mary Elizabeth Truss was born in Oxford on July 26, 1975, the eldest of the four siblings. Her father, John Kenneth Truss, was a professor of mathematics, and her mother, Priscilla Mary, was a teacher and a nurse. She preferred calling herself by her middle name, Liz Truss.
Truss attended Merton College, Oxford University and studied philosophy, politics, and economics. She was active in student politics as Liberal Democrat member later switched to the Conservatives in 1996.
She met her husband Hugh O’Leary, an accountant at a Conservative Party convention and after three years of relationship got married in 2000. The couple has two teenage daughters- Frances and Liberty. Their marriage hit a rocky patch when Truss controversy affair was made public in 2006 with former Tory MP Mark Field. With the controversy MP Mark Field had a divorce but Truss managed to survive her marriage. The couple believed to have patch up and Hugh O’Leary happily stands by her side and provide moral support.
Liz Truss Political Career
Before becoming PM, Truss had been the MP for Southwest Norfolk since 2010. She held various cabinet offices under three PMs David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson and became the first female lord chancellor in 2016. She has also served as the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs since 2021 and Minister of Women and Equalities since 2019. Truss is active in social media and amongst the most followed minister with over 313.1 k followers on Twitter and 53.3 k on Instagram.
UK Economic crisis
Liz Truss promises UK bold plan to ‘cut taxes’ and ‘grow economy’. The new PM have a hard task ahead to tackle crippling energy prices, rising inflation and cost of living crisis. First time in 40 years the Britain’s inflation rose above 10% in July with soaring rise of cost of living with increase of cost of energy, food and fuel amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Bank of England predicts inflation will soar to 13% by the end of the year. Further the Central Bank also predicted that the inflation will make UK fall into recession before the end of the year.
Liz Truss Cabinet
Lizz Truss held her first Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London on Wednesday, and announced one of the UK’s most diverse Cabinets- Kwasi Kwarteng, with Ghanaian roots as Finance Minister, James Cleverly as Foreign Secretary and Suella Braverman, an Indian origin as Home Secretary. Though diverse background, the new minsters share Truss small-state ideologue, economic liberalism with free market and staunch support of Brexit.
Task Ahead
The Bank of England has warned that the UK is due to enter a period of economic recession due to high inflation and increasing interest rates. The spending on gas and electricity bills will increase and it is predicted that the increase is five times more than the increase faced by UK household during the energy crises in 1970s.
Liz Truss promises to cut taxes, get rid of EU laws, reverse the national insurance increase and put a moratorium on the green energy levy to deal with energy prices and rising inflation is only to be seen if it can safe UK from the crises.