The very liberal Liz Truss won the race on Monday to become British Prime Minister and succeed Boris Johnson, immediately promising to act in a “bold” way in the face of the historic crisis of purchasing power which is hitting the United Kingdom.
Liz Truss, 47, who led a very right-wing campaign focused on tax cuts, will become the third woman to lead the British government on Tuesday, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs won with 57% of the vote – a smaller lead than expected, facing her former colleague of Finance, Rishi Sunak (43%) –, following an internal vote in the conservative party , triggered by the resignation in early July of Boris Johnson, cornered by repeated scandals.
Elected leader of the party, Liz Truss will automatically come to power because of the majority enjoyed by the “Tories” in the House of Commons.
Remaining faithful to the end to Boris Johnson, whom she had applauded in her victory speech, she will enter Downing Street in an explosive economic and social context, marked by inflation that exceeds 10%, an exorbitant rise in energy bills expected to fall and strikes that stretch.
She has no respite to convince, with two years of elections where the Labor opposition, which has a clear lead in the polls, hopes to dislodge the conservatives in power since 2010.
Call for unity
After her victory was announced, Liz Truss promised “a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy.” While, according to the press, she is preparing to announce a freeze on energy bills, she said she wanted to resolve the immediate difficulties related to prices, but also the “long-term” supply problems.
She promised a “great victory” to her party in the legislative elections scheduled for 2024, seeming to immediately rule out early elections.
Liz Truss will also have to deal with the shadow of Boris Johnson, who is already missing by some members of the Conservative Party – more masculine, older and white than the average Briton – and has not ruled out a return to politics.
The outgoing leader called the party to unity, after a campaign that brought to light divisions and resentment among the conservatives.
Social growl
The Irish government gave a cautious welcome to Liz Truss’ victory, while Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon congratulated her, but called her on Twitter to “freeze energy bills […]distribute more aid and increase funding for public services”.
In Europe, Emmanuel Macron said he was “available to be able to work between allies and friends” with Liz Truss, who in the campaign had refused to decide whether the French president was “friend or enemy”.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has warned that she hopes for “full respect (of) the agreements” between the United Kingdom and the European Union, as London’s desire to reverse the pro-Brexit status of Northern Ireland announces difficult confrontations.
With the economic crisis, this dossier is shaping up to be one of the thorny subjects awaiting the new leader, with the war in Ukraine, Scotland’s desire for independence or the illegal arrivals of migrants by the English Channel, constantly more numerous.
Boris Johnson will go on Tuesday to hand in his resignation to Elizabeth II at his summer residence in Balmoral, Scotland, a first for the 96-year-old sovereign who has difficulty moving around and will not make the trip to London.
Liz Truss will follow him, to become 15e head of government for the Queen’s 70-year reign, before returning to London to deliver her first speech outside 10 Downing Street.
She will then be able to form her government, which is announced, given the names circulating, marked very to the right, like the campaign she led. The latter, belatedly converted to conservatism as to Brexit, seduced by promising massive tax cuts and adopting a very hard tone against the unions. But it only resolved belatedly to promise aid to households, without ever detailing its nature.
Yet the favorite of Conservative MPs, Rishi Sunak, a wealthy ex-banker, struggled to seduce the party base by advocating economic realism and was seen as unable to understand the difficulties of households.
In Swaffham, in the constituency of Liz Truss, in the east of England, Susan Allen, 67, trusts her: “She will do a good job”, she assures AFP, while acknowledging that “everything is difficult at the moment”. Martin Childs, seated in a pub, is more circumspect: “His policy seems to be moving in a zigzag, it is not clear what it will do”.
If she is popular with the Tories, less than a fifth of Britons (19%) trust her to act on the cost of living crisis, according to a YouGov poll published on Monday.