(Yahoo) Members of Britain’s Conservative Party selected Liz Truss to replace Boris Johnson as the party’s leader on Monday, meaning Truss will take over as the U.K. Prime Minister on Tuesday. The former foreign secretary will officially begin her new job after Johnson visits Queen Elizabeth II to formally resign.
I am honoured to be elected Leader of the Conservative Party.
Thank you for putting your trust in me to lead and deliver for our great country.
I will take bold action to get all of us through these tough times, grow our economy, and unleash the United Kingdom’s potential. pic.twitter.com/xCGGTJzjqb
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) September 5, 2022
Who is Liz Truss?
A longtime Conservative politician, Truss was the U.K.’s first female Lord Chancellor, the cabinet member in charge of the courts. She has also served as the education minister, the environment minister, justice secretary, and most recently, as the foreign minister under Boris Johnson. She also took a lead role in Britain’s support for Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.
Conservative leadership candidate Liz Truss appears on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show presented by Laura Kuenssberg in London, Britain, September 4, 2022. / Credit: Jeff Overs/BBC/Handout via REUTERS
Despite being less popular with Conservative members of parliament than her rival, she landed the country’s top job by polling better among the Conservative party’s registered members accross Britain.
How is there a new prime minister without an election?
In Britain, prime ministers are not directly elected by the public. General elections work more like congressional elections in the United States: The public votes for local representatives to send to the U.K.’s legislature, the parliament. The leader of the party that wins the most seats in the parliament generally becomes the prime minister.
A series of scandals forced Johnson to announce his resignation in July. His Conservative Party, however, still holds the majority of seats in parliament, so it was up to the roughly 172,000 eligible members of the party to choose a new leader from among its top ranks, and thus a new prime minister.
