Truss will be next PM after beating Sunak in Tory leadership race

Liz Truss will become the next prime minister after defeating Rishi Sunak in the Conservative Party leadership contest.

Ms Truss, who was the favourite to win the contest, will succeed Boris Johnson on Tuesday and become the nation’s third female leader.

The foreign secretary 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 won by a significant margin, but the 57% victory over Mr Sunak’s 43% was slimmer than in other recent contests.

Ms Truss said it is an “honour to be elected” as she thanked her party for organising “one of the longest job interviews in history”.

In a short speech after the result was announced, she issued her thanks to her “friend” Boris Johnson, who will officially depart from No 10 on Tuesday.

“You got Brexit done. You crushed Jeremy Corbyn. You rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin,” she said.

Mr Johnson, who was forced to announce his resignation after a wave of ministers left his government over a series of controversies, will visit the Queen at Balmoral Castle in Scotland to formally tender his resignation tomorrow.

New PM announced – live updates

Shortly after this, Ms Truss will also meet the Queen, who will invite her to form a government.

Ms Truss is expected to make a speech outside Number 10 once she takes office and will then get to work on appointing her cabinet.

She faces the immediate challenge of coming up with a package of support to help households weather a worsening cost of living crisis driven by soaring energy bills.

Ms Truss reiterated her promise to “deliver a bold plan” to cut taxes and grow the economy in her victory speech.

She said: “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.”

Ms Truss has remained tight-lipped about what kind of support package she might introduce – though speculation is mounting it could be a freeze in the energy price cap.

Reacting to her victory, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said she “needs to show that she actually understands and can meet the challenges that are there after 12 years of failure of this Tory Government”.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also called on her to “freeze energy bills for people & businesses, deliver more cash support, and increase funding for public services”.

Conservatives have also been reacting to her victory.

Former prime minister Theresa May said: “I look forward to supporting the government in that task.”

And former leadership hopeful Penny Mordaunt told Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby that Ms Truss is the strong character the UK needs to “take our country forward”.

Read more:
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Mr Sunak and Ms Truss were whittled down to the final two candidates after five rounds of voting by Tory MPs.

The pair went head to head over a summer of hustings and live television debates, during which they clashed repeatedly over their plans for the economy.

Party members had from 1 August to 2 September to cast their votes, which were counted over the weekend.