10 Things You Should Know about Liz Truss, UK’s New Prime Minister

Liz Truss was elected as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on Monday, after defeating Rishi Sunak. Truss will succeed the ousted Boris Johnson.

Here’s all you need to know about the newly elected Prime Minister:

1. Truss, who has served as Britain’s foreign secretary in the past, was named as UK’s new Prime Minister on Monday. She will replace the scandal-plagued Boris Johnson as Conservative Party leader and the country’s Prime Minister.
2. She will be taking over the charge as the Prime Minister on Tuesday amidst a cost of living crisis, industrial unrest and a recession in the country.
3. She had pledged to slash taxes and keep up Britain’s staunch support for Ukraine during her leadership campaign. Truss is likely to prioritise the issue of surging energy prices, as promised earlier.
4. Truss, 47, will be Britain’s third female prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher, who governed from 1979 to 1990, and Theresa May, who held office from 2016 to 2019.
5. Mary Elizabeth Truss, popularly known as Liz Truss, was born in 1975 to a math professor and a nurse in Oxford. Her family lived in Scotland, before moving to England. Truss is married to Hugh O’Leary, an accountant, and the couple has two teenage daughters.
6. She attended a public high school in England – something that sets her apart from her many privately educated Conservative colleagues. Later, she went on to Oxford University, where she studied philosophy, politics and economics. She was president of the university branch of the Liberal Democratic Party.
7. Truss had worked as an economist for energy company Shell and telecommunications firm Cable and Wireless, and for a right-of-center think tank while becoming involved in Conservative politics and espousing free market Thatcherite views.
8. She also served as a local councilor in London and ran unsuccessfully for Parliament twice before being elected to represent the eastern England seat of Southwest Norfolk in 2010.
9. In 2014, Truss got her first Cabinet job as food and environment secretary, making her biggest impression with a much-mocked speech in which she thundered that it was “a disgrace” that Britain imports two-thirds of its cheese.
10. In May 2017, she became justice secretary, but was later demoted to a more junior role in the Treasury. In September 2021, she was appointed foreign secretary, Britain’s top diplomat. Her political career has been nothing short of a rollercoaster ride as she constantly drew mixed reactions from citizens.