Liz Truss was, on Monday announced as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the new leader of the UK’s Conservative Party.
Truss polled 81, 326 votes, accounting for 57.4% of the votes to defeat her closest rival, Rishi Sunak who polled 60,399 votes, 42.6%. That means, she will be replacing Boris Johnson who had announced his resignation as the leader of the Conservative Party and effectively as prime minister on July 7.
Below here are some of the things to know about the new British Prime Minister;
1) Mary Elizabeth Truss was born on July 26, 1975 in Oxford, England, to the family of John Kenneth and Priscilla Mary Truss.
2). Truss began formal education at West Primary School in Paisley, Scotland. She then attended Roundhay School, in the Roundhay area of Leeds. She went on to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Merton College, Oxford, where she graduated in 1996.
3). She joined the Conservative Party in 1996.
4). From 1996 to 2000, Truss worked for Shell, during which time she qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA) in 1999. In 2000, Truss was employed by Cable & Wireless and rose to economic director before leaving in 2005.
5). Truss served as the chair of the Lewisham Deptford Conservative Association from 1998 to 2000. She unsuccessfully contested the Greenwich London Borough Council elections in 1998 (for Vanbrugh ward) and 2002 (in Blackheath Westcombe).
6). After losing her first two elections, Truss became the full-time deputy director of Reform in January 2008, where she advocated more rigorous academic standards in schools, a greater focus on tackling serious and organised crime, and urgent action to deal with Britain’s falling competitiveness.
7). She was elected as a councillor for Eltham South in the Greenwich London Borough Council election on May 4, 2006.
8). On September 4, 2012, Truss was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education, with responsibility for childcare and early learning, assessment, qualifications and curriculum reform, behaviour and attendance, and school food review.
9) Truss had served as the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs since 2021 and Minister for Women and Equalities since 2019.
10). On July 10, 2022, Truss announced her intention to run in the Conservative Party leadership election to replace Boris Johnson after the latter’s resignation. On September 5, 2022, Truss won the Conservative Party’s election as party leader, beating her rival, Sunak, becoming the third female to occupy that position after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
