Liz Truss wins race to be U.K. prime minister after Boris Johnson

Authored by nbcnews.com and submitted by Arpith2019
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Truss, addressing a crowd of Conservative activists and lawmakers at an announcement event in the capital, joked that the lengthy leadership race was "one of the longest job interviews in history."

Her victory means she will become the country’s third female leader, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.

Johnson announced his resignation in July when six months of rolling scandals finally culminated in a critical mass of his own lawmakers abandoning him.

Most of Britain’s 67 million people had no say in Truss’ ascension. Instead, she was chosen by the party’s 180,000 members, who are 97% white, skew older, wealthy and male, and lean to the right of Britain’s political spectrum. Truss does not appear to be hugely popular in polls of the broader public and was not the top choice of her party’s lawmakers, but she was the favorite of its members.

The next general election might not be until early 2025; polls currently give the opposition Labour Party large leads over the Conservatives following the acrimony around Johnson’s fall.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer congratulated Truss in a pre-recorded video, but added: “The change we need in Britain is not a change at the top of the Tory party,” referring to the Conservative Party by its centuries-old nickname.

Top of Truss’ priorities will be the country’s cost-of-living crisis: skyrocketing bills for food and energy (household electricity and gas bills are set to triple); fears of blackouts this winter; and inflation sending real-terms wages falling. Millions of people may face the choice between heating their homes or feeding their families, while many small businesses say they will fold unless the government takes action.

Truss has promised to announce her plans on the issue this week. In her acceptance speech she vowed tax cuts and said: "I will deliver on the energy crisis."

But for her, tackling the crisis is doubly hard because her party is bitterly divided on what to do about it.

Johnson assembled a broad coalition that agreed on one issue — Brexit — says Anand Menon, director of the U.K. in a Changing Europe think tank. That big tent covers lifelong, middle-class Tories in the southern countryside, who may want a small state and lower taxes, to party newcomers from the traditionally Labour-voting north, who generally favor more investment in public services.

“The party is so divided on the only issue that matters to people now and that’s going to be problematic,” Menon said. “The only issue that matters is the economy.”

Attempting to unite these factions is Truss, a political chameleon who, supporters say, has been nimble and pragmatic enough to adapt her views, and whom critics decry as opportunistic.

She was born in Oxford to a math professor father and a nurse mother she described as “left wing.” As a student at Oxford University, she supported the centrist Liberal Democrats and advocated positions such as abolishing the monarchy and banning nuclear weapons.

After switching to the Conservatives, she was elected to Parliament in 2010 following several unsuccessful attempts.

In 2016, she voted to remain in the E.U. during the Brexit referendum. That put her on the liberal — and losing — side of a political and cultural war that has raged ever since. However, she has since switched sides, often displaying the zeal of the convert that seems to have convinced the party faithful.

TheAlbinoAmigo on September 5th, 2022 at 12:18 UTC »

I would say 'Ah fuck, at least it's not Sunak', but then again if Sunak had won I'd be saying 'Ah fuck, at least it's not Truss'.

Really finding some deep layers at the bottom of the barrel to scrape at, aren't we?

TNT1990 on September 5th, 2022 at 12:10 UTC »

I feel like the words of Bender hold true: Citizens of me! The cruelty of the old pharaoh is a thing of the past. Let a whole new wave of cruelty wash over this lazy land!

Mnemosense on September 5th, 2022 at 12:05 UTC »

It's actually incredible how the tories keep finding someone worse than before.