BALLATER, United Kingdom —
Liz Truss on
Tuesday officially became Britain’s new prime minister, at an audience with
head of state Queen Elizabeth II after the resignation of Boris Johnson.
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The former foreign secretary, 47, was seen in an
official photograph shaking hands with the monarch to accept her offer to form
a new government and become the 15th prime minister of her 70-year reign.
The symbolic ceremony took place at the sovereign’s
remote
Balmoral retreat in the Scottish Highlands, as the queen, 96, was deemed
unfit to return to London due to ill health.
“The queen received in audience the right honorable
Elizabeth Truss MP today and requested her to form a new administration,”
Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
“Ms Truss accepted Her Majesty’s offer and kissed
hands upon her appointment as prime minister.
The last time the handover of power took place at
Balmoral was in 1885, when queen Victoria was on the throne.
Normally, the outgoing and incoming prime minister
meet the queen in quick succession at
Buckingham Palace in central London.
It has only been held once outside London since
1952, when Winston Churchill met the new queen at Heathrow Airport after the
death of her father, king George VI.
Truss, who was announced winner of an internal vote
of Conservative party members on Monday, after a grueling contest that began in
July.
She is expected to make her first speech as prime
minister outside 10 Downing Street at about 4pm (3pm GMT) on Tuesday — weather
permitting.
Heavy rain and storms are forecast, mirroring the gloomy
economic situation that she and her new senior ministers will now have to
tackle.
The appointments are due to be finalized before she
hosts her first cabinet meeting and faces questions in parliament on Wednesday.
Business Secretary
Kwasi Kwarteng is expected to
become finance minister, with Attorney General Suella Braverman moved to the
tricky brief of home secretary, and James Cleverly to foreign affairs.
If confirmed, it would mean no white men in any of
Britain’s four main ministerial posts for the first time ever.
To-do list
The incoming prime minister
faces a daunting to-do list, with the
UK in the grip of its worst economic
crisis in decades, with double-digit inflation and sky-rocketing gas and
electricity bills.
Truss, who touts herself as a free-market liberal,
has promised tax cuts to stimulate growth, despite warnings that greater
borrowing could make inflation worse.
British media reported on Tuesday that she would
freeze energy bills for hard-pressed households and business which could cost
some £100 billion.
The contrast to her beaten leadership rival Rishi
Sunak’s more cautious approach has opened another rift in the Conservative
party that was already divided by Johnson’s departure.
Recent opinion polls suggest a sizeable chunk of the
British public have no faith in her ability to tackle the cost-of-living
crisis.
A new poll by YouGov said only 14 percent expect
Truss — the fourth Tory prime minister in six years — to do a better job than
Johnson.
Johnson, whose
tenure was dominated by Brexit and
COVID-19 and cut short by a succession of
scandals, earlier promised Truss his unswerving support as he made a farewell
speech in Downing Street.
“I will be supporting Liz Truss and the new
government every step of the way,” he said, before leaving for Balmoral to
cheers and applause from supporters.
He urged the Tories to put aside their ideological
differences which have seen the party fight like cats and dogs over how best to
tackle the energy crisis.
“If Dilyn (his dog) and Larry (the Downing Street
cat) can put behind them their occasional difficulties then so can the
Conservative party,” he added.
Comeback?
But former newspaper
polemicist Johnson failed to dampen speculation that he is eyeing a potential
return to the political front line.
“Like Cincinnatus, I am returning to my plough,” he
said. Latin scholars were quick to point out that the Roman statesman eventually returned to politics.
Johnson, 58, remains popular among grassroots Tories
as a charismatic election winner who took the country out of the EU.
Despite repeated accusations of corruption and
cronyism during his tenure, and an unprecedented police fine for breaking his
own lockdown rules, Johnson is said to be smarting at having to leave.
Speculation has swirled that he could bide his time
for a comeback, particularly if Truss struggles to overcome the country’s many
problems.
In her acceptance speech on Monday, Truss ruled out
seeking her own mandate from the public at an early general election, vowing
victory in 2024.
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