Liz Truss was appointed Monday, September 5, to take over from Boris Johnson, by some 160,000 members of the Conservative Party. At 47, she becomes the third woman to hold the post of Prime Minister in the history of the United Kingdom, after a campaign of several months against Rishi Sunak. She will be officially named Prime Minister at a ceremony with Elizabeth II on Tuesday.
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The former Minister of Foreign Affairs, with a very right-wing positioning, particularly on economic issues, will have to face the cost of living crisis affecting the country. A high-risk mission: only 35% of Britons think she would make a good Prime Minister, according to a poll published by Inews*. Faithful to Boris Johnson, who joined the cabinet in 2014, she is particularly known for her atypical political career and her outspokenness. Franceinfo summarizes five things to know about the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1She comes from a “very left-wing” family
Liz Truss, born in 1975 in Oxford, grew up in a family she has previously described as “far left”fell The Observer* as of 2009. His father was a professor of mathematics at the university. His mother, a nurse and teacher, had joined the ranks of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). According to information from The Observerhis parents were “horrified” upon learning that their daughter was now a member of the Conservative Party. At school too,I didn’t know any curator, she raised again. All my teachers were Labor sympathizers.”
2She was first a centrist
The young Briton joined the prestigious University of Oxford* in 1993, to study political science, philosophy and economics. The university recalls that at the time, Liz Truss chaired the group of Liberal Democrat activists on campus. Centrist having bathed in left-wing ideas, the student positions herself in favor of the abolition of the monarchy in the United Kingdom. We are then in 1994, during a conference of the Liberal Democrats in Brighton (United Kingdom), recalls the BBC *. “We believe in opportunity for allshe says. We don’t believe that people are born to rule.”
Remarks that the Briton, who became a member of the “Tories” in 1996, would later describe as “a mistake”. “People may know that I have a somewhat questionable past”, she said in front of a conservative audience in August, notes the Washington Post*. “We all make mistakes, we all had teenage misadventures. Some people have sex, do drugs and listen to rock ‘n’ roll. I joined the Liberal Democrats. I’m sorry.”
3She has held several ministerial positions
In 2014, four years after being elected MP for the constituency of South West Norfolk, Liz Truss became, at 38, the youngest female cabinet member in the UK. The elected Conservative was appointed Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, then Secretary of State for Justice in July 2016, under the authority of Prime Minister Theresa May. Chief Secretary of the Treasury in 2017, she became Secretary of State for International Trade in 2019, then, two months later, Minister for Women and Equality. Liz Truss climbs a further step in September 2021, when she is appointed head of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Commonwealth and Development.
In one year, the Secretary of State comes out in favor of a unilateral revision of the Northern Irish protocol, very firmly opposes the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and implements sanctions against Russian oligarchs, remind him washington post. She was nevertheless criticized for her remarks supporting British volunteers* who had gone to fight in Ukraine. More recently, Liz Truss did not fail to react by declaring that she did not yet know if Emmanuel Macron was “friend or foe”. A case that has reacted to the head of the French state.
4She was against Brexit before changing her mind
Liz Truss campaigned for the “no” side during the referendum on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (EU) in 2016. The then Minister of the Environment even went so far as to sign a grandstand in the Sun*calling Brexit a “triple tragedy – more rules, more forms and more delays when selling to the EU”. Under the government of Theresa May, in charge of negotiations with the EU, the conservative changed her mind, explaining that Brexit “gave an opportunity to change the way things work”as explained by the BBC*.
Promoted Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2021, she had to deal with the thorny Northern Irish file, which poisons relations between London and Brussels. A complex task for the one who has become one of the most fervent supporters of Brexit and who wants to be intransigent with European partners.
5It worries environmentalists
A champion of free trade and tax cuts, Liz Truss is frequently compared to Margaret Thatcher in power between 1979 and 1990. the new head of government promised during her campaign “to lower taxes and not to distribute subsidies”.
About the energy crisis that is rocking the country, Liz Truss remained vague, promising “an announcement during the first week”explains the Guardian*, without giving further details. Supporter of shale gas and the exploitation of new oil fields in the North Sea, the new Prime Minister wishes to lower subsidies on renewable energies, explains Politico*. A promise that worries environmental defense associations.
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