Liz Truss is officially the new British prime minister

Liz Truss promised to “ride out the storm” as Prime Minister, and it’s not clear whether she was referring to the multiple crises crippling the United Kingdom or the flash shower that briefly scuppered her first big speech.

Tuesday was a busy and country-spanning day for Britain’s new leader; Truss met the Queen in Scotland to seal her promotion, and enjoyed a set-piece introduction outside the black door of Number 10.

But the reality is that Truss’ premiership starts under a cloud. Boris Johnson’s dramatic fall has tarnished the reputation of the governing Conservatives, and Brits are almost universally more concerned about their household bills than the identity of their leader.

Truss pledged action in a matter of days on the energy crisis, and put cutting taxes and boosting growth atop her priories too. She also accepted that the cherished National Health Service is buckling under pressure, pledging to restore that third rail of British public life.

Truss’ listing of the problems facing the country represented something of an awkward pitch, given her party has been been in power for 12 years. And it’s safe to say Britons’ patience is wearing creaking further with each new Tory leader.

Truss must now battle not just a perfect storm of social and economic challenges, but also a rejuvenated Labour Party and a prevailing sense among voters that the Conservatives are out of ideas.

She survived a bitter and bruising leadership campaign that saw a number of her own Conservative colleagues trash her economic plan. She must excite a party with many members who never wanted Johnson to resign anyway. And her hopes of a brighter 2023 for the nation seem to diminish with every new economic forecast.

Still, starting from a place of low expectations can be helpful to a new leader. If Truss’s plan to tackle the cost of living crisis eases the pressures facing households, she could appear as the unlikely savior of her party.

Or, to set the bar more modestly, she could become the first post-Brexit Prime Minister to make it through their third year.

That challenge begins on Wednesday, when her one-day honeymoon ends and Truss faces her first grilling at Prime Minister’s Questions.