The serving British Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, has been elected as the leader of the Conservative Party, paving the way for her to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The 47-year-old Truss defeated the rival candidate Rishi Sunak by winning 57 percent of the Tory membership vote. The contest was held after Prime Minster Johnson stepped down from the party leadership in early July and announced that he would stay in office until party members elected a replacement.
Truss is expected to take the country’s highest office tomorrow. “Truss will become prime minister on Tuesday after travelling to meet the Queen at Balmoral in Scotland,” the BBC confirmed.
The Times of London reported the election of the new Tory party leader:
Liz Truss will become Britain’s 56th prime minister after a narrower-than-expected victory over Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership race.A protracted and bitter two-month contest came to an end as Truss was named the winner by Sir Graham Brady, head of the 1922 Committee, in central London. Truss won with 81,326 votes to Sunak’s 60,339 member votes — or 57 per cent of the total.In her acceptance speech, Truss promised to cut taxes, deal with energy bills and fix the NHS, and appeared to rule out an early election, saying: “We will deliver a great victory for the Conservative Party in 2024”. She also praised her predecessor, Boris Johnson, saying he was “admired from Kyiv to Carlisle”.
Sky News UK reported the outgoing prime minister’s reaction:
Mr Johnson, who was forced to resign after a wave of ministers left his government over a series of controversies, will visit the Queen at Balmoral to formally tender his resignation tomorrow.Reacting to Ms Truss’s victory, he said she “has the right plan to tackle the cost of living crisis, unite our party and continue the great work of uniting and levelling up our country”.
Despite the 2016 Brexit vote, the UK hasn’t been able to take control of its borders. Illegal immigration from continental Europe is at an all-time high. “A new record has been set for the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in a single day,” the BBC reported. “Almost 1,300 made the crossing on 22 August, in 27 small boats.”
Much like the rest of Europe, Britain also faces an energy crisis as Russia slashes oil and gas supplies. Though the UK is much less dependent on Russian gas supply than the rest of Europe, “changes in Russian supplies can cause as much gas price volatility in Britain as in the rest of Europe,” Reuters reported Friday.
The country is also at the forefront of the woke culture war being waged by the Far Left. During the Tory leadership contest, Truss angered “trans-rights” activists by saying that no one had the right to ‘self-identify’ as a woman without proper medical checks. “I have full respect for transgender people, however it wouldn’t be right to have self identification with no checks and balances in the system,” she said.
Her comments triggered a wave of outrage among the woke activists. Earlier this month, Politico noted the “LGBT [Tory] members’ unhappiness over her stance on transgender rights, which she has raised repeatedly in order to put forward the view that trans women are not women.”
Nigel Farage reacts to Tory leadership vote:
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