Former Foreign Secretary Liz Truss won her race to become the United Kingdom’s next prime minister, NBC News reports.
Truss, who served in former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Cabinet, was elected as the leader of the Conservative Party on Monday, making her the country’s new leader.
Truss defeated former finance minister Rishi Sunak 57-43.
Truss, 47, ran as an anti-tax, anti-woke candidate with a hardline position on post-Brexit negotiations with Europe.
But she faces numerous questions surrounding Britain’s dealings with the European Union, along with a deepening energy crisis, economic crisis, and widespread labor strikes.
Truss is 3rd female PM:
Truss becomes Britain’s third female leader, joining Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
But Truss was chosen among just 180,000 Conservative Party members, who are 97% white and tend to be more male and affluent. Most of Britain’s nearly 70 million population had no say in who would run the country.
The next general election may not be held until 2025 and the Conservative Party currently trails the Labour Party in the polls after the fallout from Johnson’s many scandals.
Truss faces divided party:
Truss has vowed to tackle the energy crisis but the Conservatives are deeply divided about what to do about it.
“The party is so divided on the only issue that matters to people now and that’s going to be problematic,” Anand Menon, director of the U.K. in a Changing Europe think tank, told NBC News. “The only issue that matters is the economy.”
Truss, a former supporter of the Liberal Democrats, “wooed” the Conservative grassroots “by telling them what they want to hear — and pretty much only what they want to hear,” added Tim Bale, a professor at Queen Mary University of London.
