Boris Johnson makes defiant exit as Liz Truss set to take over as U.K. PM

Truss, 47, takes office a day after the Conservative Party’s 172,000 members elected her to lead their party.

On Tuesday afternoon, she is expected to make her first speech as leader of a nation 67 million people anxious about soaring energy bills and a looming winter of recession and labor unrest. Those problems have festered for the past two months because Johnson had no authority to make major policy decisions after announcing his plan to step down.

Speaking to Conservative party members on Monday, Truss promised to “deliver” on the economy, the energy crisis and the overstretched health care system, though she offered few specifics on her policies. On Sunday, Truss promised to unveil her plans for tackling the cost-of-living crisis within a week.

She is under pressure to spell out how she plans to help people and businesses struggling to pay energy bills that are due to rise next month to 3,500 pounds ($4,000) for the average household — triple the cost of a year ago.

The price spike, driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the aftershocks of Covid-19 and Brexit, has propelled U.K. inflation above 10% for the first time in four decades. The Bank of England forecasts it will hit 13.3% in October, and that the U.K. will tip into recession by the end of the year.

Train drivers, port staff, garbage collectors, postal workers and lawyers have all staged strikes to demand that pay increases keep pace with inflation, and millions more, from teachers to nurses, could walk out in the next few months.

Liz Truss’ first task for Truss will be to appoint a Cabinet to tackle the government’s mountain of challenges.Carl Court / Getty Images

Truss, a low-tax, small-government conservative, says her priority is cutting taxes and slashing regulations to fuel economic growth. Critics say that will further fuel inflation while failing to address the cost-of-living crisis. The uncertainty has rattled money markets, driving the pound as low as $1.15, its weakest performance against the dollar since the 1980s.

The first task for Truss will be to appoint a Cabinet to tackle the government’s mountain of challenges.

She will also face multiple foreign policy crises, including the war in Ukraine and frosty post-Brexit relations with the European Union.

As foreign secretary Truss was a firm supporter of Ukraine’s resistance to Russian invasion, and as prime minister she will continue the U.K.’s civilian and military support for Kyiv. She has said her first phone call with a world leader will be to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

She’s likely to have much cooler conversations with E.U. leaders, who have been annoyed by Truss’s uncompromising stance as foreign secretary in talks over trade rules for Northern Ireland, an unresolved Brexit issue that has soured relations between London and Brussels.