UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Monday defeated Indian-origin former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak to be named the winner of the Conservative Party leadership contest. Truss will now go on to formally take charge as British Prime Minister as Boris Johnson’s successor, putting an end to Sunak’s historic run as the first member of Parliament of Indian heritage to compete for the top job at 10 Downing Street.
She defeated Sunak through a postal ballot of all Conservative members. Truss secured 81,326 votes while Sunak got 60,399 votes.
Truss is the third female Prime Minister in Britain, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
After winning the Conservative leadership race, Truss said she will take bold actions to get all of the UK through the tough times to unleash the United Kingdom’s potential.
“I am honoured to be elected Leader of the Conservative Party. Thank you for putting your trust in me to lead and deliver for our great country. I will take bold action to get all of us through these tough times, grow our economy, and unleash the United Kingdom’s potential,” tweeted the UK PM-elect. Will take bold action to unleash UK’s potential, says Liz Truss after winning Conservative leadership race Liz Truss was announced as the new head of the Conservative Party today. Forty-seven-year-old Liz Truss will become the third female prime minister of the UK.
The Tory leadership race was triggered after Boris Johnson was forced to step down on July 7 following a series of resignations of cabinet members, who protested against his scandal-plagued leadership.
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss rose to the Conservative ranks to end up as finalists for the contest for the post of UK Prime Minister.
During nearly a dozen hustings and after a six-week long head-to-head competition, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak had explained their long-term visions for Britain. Both contenders went through bouts of 12 nationwide events with the first bout in Leeds, Northern England.
Truss indicated that she will strongly push back against “identity politics of the left” as she has envisioned the legislation for single-sex spaces such as domestic violence shelters. Sunak batted for cutting VAT to revive the country’s economic situation.The Roadmap 2030 for India-UK future relations was launched during a virtual summit between the two countries in May last year. This Roadmap is for revitalised and dynamic connections between people, re-energised trade, investment and technological collaboration.
During her visit to India this year, Truss along with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar expressed satisfaction with the progress achieved so far concerning Roadmap 2030 and agreed to further intensify efforts to deliver results in priority areas of trade and investments, defence, and migration.
Both sides appreciated the substantial progress made in the India-UK FTA negotiations with two productive rounds completed since its launch in January 2022.