Meet Liz Truss, 3rd Female Prime Minister Of Britain

Meet Liz Truss, 3^rd female Prime Minister of Britain, who defeated Indian-origin Rishi Sunak

After meeting the Queen at Balmoral and being asked to form a government following Boris Johnson’s resignation, Liz Truss has been named the new prime minister of the UK. Truss, 47, is the UK’s third female prime minister and its 56th overall. Before beginning to appoint her cabinet, she is anticipated to return right away to Downing Street and deliver a speech to the country at around 4 o’clock. With allies reportedly talking about a £100 billion package to freeze bills, one of her first significant acts as prime minister is anticipated to be an announcement on plans to address the energy price crisis.

Early Life:

Priscilla Truss and Professor John Kenneth Truss welcomed Mary Elizabeth Truss into the world on July 26, 1975 in Oxford, England. Three of her brothers are younger. In addition to working as a nurse and teacher, her mother supported the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Her father was a retired professor of pure mathematics at the University of Leeds. Her mother agreed to run a campaign for Truss when she later decided to run as a Conservative for election to Parliament, but her father declined. Her mother unsuccessfully ran for office as a Liberal Democrat in the 2004 Leeds City Council election after her parents divorced in 2003.

When Truss was four years old, the family relocated to Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. From 1979 to 1985, they stayed there, during which time Truss attended West Primary School. Later, she went to Roundhay School in Leeds’ Roundhay neighbourhood. Teenage classmates described Truss as a studious girl with “geeky” friends. She reportedly showed interest in social issues like homelessness. She studied philosophy, politics, and economics at Merton College in Oxford, where she received her degree in 1996. She began her professional life in 1999 as a Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA). Then, she worked for Cable & Wireless and went up to the position of economic director before quitting in 2005.

Career in politics:

From 1998 to 2000, Truss served as the Lewisham Deptford Conservative Association’s president. She was selected in 2006 to represent Eltham South as a councillor in the Greenwich London Borough Council. On May 6, 2010, she was selected to serve in the House of Commons. Truss was appointed to the Department of Education’s position of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State on September 4th, 2012. She also received responsibility for assessment, curriculum reform, qualifications, behaviour and attendance, and a review of the school lunch programme. In a cabinet reshuffle on July 15, 2014, Owen Paterson was replaced by Truss as Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs.

She was appointed Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice in Theresa May’s first ministry in 2016. As a result, she was the first woman to hold either position or serve as Lord Chancellor in the office’s 900-year history. On July 11th, Truss was promoted to Chief Secretary to the Treasury following the 2017 British general elections. Truss stated in 2019 that she might run for the Conservative Party leadership but she supported Boris Johnson.

She was given the positions of Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade in exchange for her backing of Boris Johnson. Truss was also named Minister for Women and Equalities following Amber Rudd’s resignation from the Boris Johnson administration. During the 2021 Cabinet reorganisation, Johnson promoted Truss from Secretary of International Trade to Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs. She was the second woman to hold the position after Margaret Beckett.

On July 10, 2022, Truss declared her intention to run for the leadership of the Conservative Party as several scandals dogged British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and ultimately led to his resignation. When running for office, she pledged to cut taxes right away and combat the nation’s rising inflation. The majority of the leaders of the ruling Conservative Party who have backed her since her campaign have been particularly interested in her views on free trade.

Personal Life:

Truss has been married to fellow accountant Hugh O’Leary since 2000; the couple have two daughters. Between late 2004 and the middle of 2005, she had an extramarital relationship with married MP Mark Field, who the Conservative Party had named as her political mentor. But she did maintain her marriage with O’Leary. “I share the value of the Christian faith and the Church of England, but I’m not a regularly attending religious person,” Truss stated in 2022.