Monday September 5, 2022
Britain’s Conservative Party announced on Monday that its members had chosen Liz Truss to replace Boris Johnson as leader, turning to a hawkish diplomat and party stalwart to govern a country facing the gravest economic crisis in a generation.
Ms. Truss, 47, prevailed over Rishi Sunak, a former chancellor of the Exchequer, whose resignation in July set in motion Mr. Johnson’s messy ouster. Her victory, which was widely expected in recent weeks after she took a commanding lead in the polls, makes her Britain’s third female prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
Like them, she will be greeted by a fearsome array of problems.
Double-digit inflation, a looming recession, labor unrest, soaring household energy bills and possible fuel shortages this winter — all will confront Ms. Truss as she moves into 10 Downing Street. She also must repair a party deeply divided after Mr. Johnson’s turbulent three-year tenure, which peaked in 2019 with a landslide general election victory but descended into unrelenting scandals after that.
Ms. Truss, who served in Mr. Johnson’s cabinet and was not part of the Tory rebellion that led to his departure, will formally assume the prime minister’s title on Tuesday in a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where the queen is vacationing. Mr. Johnson will bid farewell to the monarch just before that, drawing a curtain, at least for now, on his career as a frontline politician.
