Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Truss has been formally appointed by the Queen as new UK prime minister. She met the Queen at her Balmoral estate in Scotland. Truss won the Conservative Party leadership over Rishi Sunak on Monday.
Truss plans to address the UK’s energy crisis with an emergency package to help protect households and businesses. According to reports, the government would subsidise the wholesale cost of gas to allow suppliers to cap the price of energy for customers.
Household energy bills could be capped at £2,500, with full details of the plan expected to be announced on Thursday.
Truss, 47, is Britain’s third female prime minister, following Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
Described by a former Westminster colleague as adaptable, with “extraordinary powers of reinvention and recovery,” Truss was a former Liberal Democrat while at Oxford University before switching to the Conservative Party.
Truss, MP for South West Norfolk, is married to accountant Hugh O’Leary. They have two teenage daughters.
Photo credit: Liz Truss’ Facebook page
