Liz Truss has been announced as the next Prime Minister. The current foreign secretary won with 81,326 votes from the Tory membership, to Rishi Sunak’s 60,399.
The announcement was made by Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbench MPs, at the QEII Conference Centre in central London on Monday (September 5) after thousands of Tory party members cast their votes before the deadline on Friday.
Truss will be handed the keys to Number 10 Downing Street on Tuesday (September 5) after Boris Johnson officially tenders his resignation in a meeting with the Queen at Balmoral. Truss used her victory speech to indicate she would not be triggering an early general election, instead pledging to secure “a great victory for the Conservative Party in 2024”.
She also praised “my friend” Boris Johnson. saying: “I also want to thank our outgoing leader, my friend, Boris Johnson.” She continued: “Boris, you got Brexit done, you crushed Jeremy Corbyn, you rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin.
"You were admired from Kyiv to Carlisle.” There was a delay before applause from the audience.
Truss said: “Thank you for putting your faith in me to lead our great Conservative Party, the greatest political party on earth. I know that our beliefs resonate with the British people: our beliefs in freedom, in the ability to control your own life, in low taxes, in personal responsibility.
“I know that’s why people voted for us in such numbers in 2019 and as your party leader I intend to deliver what we promised those voters right across our great country. During this leadership campaign, I campaigned as a Conservative and I will govern as a Conservative.
“We need to show that we will deliver over the next two years. I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy. I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills but also dealing with the long-term issues we have on energy supply.”
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Truss concluded her speech with a promise to “deliver a great victory” for her party in two years’ time. The new Tory leader said: “We all will deliver for our country and I will make sure that we use all the fantastic talents of the Conservative Party, our brilliant Members of Parliament and peers, our fantastic councillors, our MSs, our MSPs, all of our councillors and activists and members right across our country.
“Because my friends, I know that we will deliver, we will deliver and we will deliver. And we will deliver a great victory for the Conservative Party in 2024.”
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