Britain’s Conservative Party has named Foreign Secretary Liz Truss as its leader triggering the beginning of a handover from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
She is taking power as Britain’s next prime minister at a time when the country faces a cost-of-living crisis, industrial unrest and a recession.
The announcement that was made on Monday came after weeks of an often bad-tempered and divisive party leadership contest that pitted Truss against Rishi Sunak, a former finance minister.
Johnson was forced to announce his resignation in July after a series of scandals and he will travel to Scotland to meet Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday to officially tender his resignation.
His successor will follow him and be asked to form a government.
In a short victory speech at the announcement in a central London convention hall, Truss said it was an “honour” to be elected after undergoing “one of the longest job interviews in history”.
Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from London, said Truss won not as resoundingly as the opinion polls might have earlier suggested. He said:
She picked up 57 per cent of eligible votes among Conservative Party members. Rishi Sunak, former chancellor of the exchequer, got 42 per cent.
She promised that she campaigned as a Conservative and she will govern as a Conservative, she promised to cut taxes, to grow the economy, she promised to deal with the energy crisis.
Truss became the Conservatives’ fourth prime minister since a 2015 election.
Over that period the country has been buffeted from crisis to crisis, and now faces what is forecast to be a long recession triggered by sky-rocketing inflation which hit 10.1 per cent in July.