Liz Truss has won the role of prime minister, and must navigate her party – and Britain – out of the mess her predecessor left behind.
Months of controversy and a mass exodus of ministers prompted Boris Johnson to announce his resignation as British prime minister in July, which started the race to find a new Conservative Party head.
Ms Truss, who was foreign secretary, narrowly beat her last remaining competitor Rishi Sunak, chief financial minister, with 57 per cent of 81,326 votes from Conservative Party members.
The change in leadership likely won’t lead to a significant shift in the country’s relationship with Australia. But with Britain experiencing an economic and energy crisis, how Ms Truss proceeds at home is vitally important.
Officially becoming the PM after meeting with Queen Elizabeth at the royal family’s Scottish home, the 47-year-old Ms Truss and her husband Hugh O’Leary entered 10 Downing Street for the first time as PM on Wednesday morning (Australian time).
“We now face severe global headwinds caused by Russia’s appalling war in Ukraine and the aftermath of COVID,” she said outside Number 10.
“I am confident that together we can ride out the storm. We can rebuild our economy, and we can become the modern brilliant Britain that I know we can be.”
She must tackle one of the most daunting set of challenges for an incoming leader in post-WWII history. And it appears that, to do so, Ms Truss won’t be straying far from her predecessor’s approach.
A Johnson loyalist, Ms Truss used her victory speech to pay tribute to her ‘‘friend’’.
‘‘Boris, you got Brexit done, you crushed Jeremy Corbyn, you rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin. You are admired from Kyiv to Carlisle,’’ she said.
Mr Johnson said during his farewell speech on Monday night that it was “time for us all to get behind Liz Truss and her team and her program”.
RMIT University senior lecturer Binoy Kampmark said Ms Truss’s leadership will have an element of ‘‘Johnson-lite’’ – minus her predecessor’s ‘‘self-destructive flourish’’.
Same strategy
Mr Johnson’s entertaining persona helped him bury former Labour leader Corbyn in the 2019 election, but his antics during the pandemic were so controversial that he had to step down, despite surviving a vote of no confidence in June when 148 (41 per cent) of his own MPs voted to get rid of him.
Mr Johnson’s illegal birthday party, which breached lockdown rules in 2020, led to his downfall with repeated calls for him to resign and the resignation of 48 ministers and aides in July.
Dr Kampmark said Mr Johnson is leaving behind a landscape of ‘‘considerable devastation’’.
Conservative Party members are deeply divided, and Ms Truss is alienating low-income citizens with her plan for a tax cut that will benefit the highest earners 250 times more than the poorest.
This comes as many people face difficult circumstances with inflation pushing up the cost of essentials, and energy costs projected to rise by 80 per cent to an average of £3549 ($6034) a year from October, according to the country’s energy regulator.
With the approach of winter in the northern hemisphere, millions of Britons facing poverty and death will demand solutions from the PM, but so far Ms Truss has been vague on plans to address the crisis.
In her victory speech, Ms Truss indicated she will ‘deal’ with energy bills and supply, but has not articulated her plan for doing so.
Dr Kampmark said while her promises have been unclear and non-specific, overall, it will be business as usual for the British government under Ms Truss’s leadership, although she handles the challenges coming her way will be carefully watched.
On September 15, the UK is legally obligated to respond to infringement proceedings launched by the EU for allegedly failing to honour its commitments under the Brexit treaty on Northern Ireland – thanks to a plan introduced to parliament by Ms Truss earlier this year.
Mr Johnson has also not resigned as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip; Dr Kampmark said the possibility of a comeback is not out of the question.
However, a Johnson-Truss power play would be just as damaging to the Conservative Party’s reputation as the Rudd-Gillard rivalry was for Australia’s Labor Party.
For now, Ms Truss should feel fairly secure in her position, as her party will want to avoid another contentious race for power with an election set to take place no later than January 2025.
‘‘It would be disastrous for the Tory party to repeat what they’ve already gone through,’’ Dr Kampmark said.
‘‘The process was too long. It was unpopular. It did not make them look particularly impressive. They’ll just wait to see how she handles the energy crisis, but it’ll be really difficult come Christmas, because that’s when the huge challenges will start to bite.’’
