Liz Truss formally became British Prime Minister on Tuesday after being received by Queen Elizabeth II, who entrusted her with the task of forming a government in a United Kingdom in the midst of economic and social crisis. “The Queen has received in audience ‘MP Liz Truss’ and requested that she form a new government,” the monarch’s services announced, moments after posting a photo of the Queen with a cane, wearing a tartan skirt and cardigan, shaking hands with the one who becomes the 15e Prime Minister of his seventy years of reign.
Two months after the announcement of his departure, Boris Johnson had preceded her a few moments earlier to submit his resignation, which the queen “graciously accepted”, according to the services of the latter. The handover was held at Balmoral, not Buckingham Palace in London as is traditional, due to mobility issues for the 96-year-old Queen.
READ ALSOUnited Kingdom: the incredible casualness of Boris Johnson
In a brief speech outside Downing Street in the early hours of the morning, Boris Johnson hailed his own record to a crowd of supporters and aides. He compared himself to a “rocket having accomplished its mission” and re-entering the atmosphere. “I will offer this government my most fervent support,” he assured. Exit the hero of Brexit: after three years and forty-four days, barely more than Theresa May, whom he replaced in 2019, Boris Johnson left what he described as “the best job in the world”, after a series scandals that triggered dozens of resignations in his close entourage in early July.
Governing as a “conservative”
Elected by 57% of the Conservative Party’s approximately 142,000 voting members, against 43% for his rival Rishi Sunak, former finance minister Liz Truss, 47, until now foreign minister, must return to London to address the British in the afternoon. She promised on Monday to govern “like a conservative”, to put in place “a bold plan to reduce taxes and grow [leur] economy” and beat Labor in the legislative elections scheduled for early 2025.
READ ALSOLuc de Barochez – “Roast beef” against “frogs”: Putin wins
Under pressure to help millions of Britons facing skyrocketing energy bills, she said she wants to tackle “the energy crisis in [s]taking care of people’s energy bills, but also by [s]occupying long-term energy supply difficulties”. Third female Prime Minister after Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) and Theresa May (2016-2019), the announcement of her government on Tuesday will be a first test for Liz Truss, who campaigned very far on the right.