Liz Truss has formally assumed office as prime minister of the United Kingdom (UK).
She clinched the office on Monday, taking over from Boris Johnson, who had a not-too-enviable tenure.
Truss became Britain’s next prime minister after meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, who asked her to form a new government.
The 47-year-old took office yesterday in the carefully choreographed ceremony with the monarch a day after the ruling Conservative Party announced that Truss was elected as its leader.
“The Queen received in Audience The Right Honourable Elizabeth Truss MP today and requested her to form a new Administration,” a Buckingham Palace statement said.
“Ms Truss accepted Her Majesty’s offer and kissed hands upon her appointment as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury,” it added.
Truss was just 19 when she made her first major political appearance, calling for an end to the reign of the monarchy of the United Kingdom.
It was at the 1994 party conference of the Liberal Democrats, and the teenager was speaking as president of the party’s Oxford University student movement.
Quoting former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown, she said: “Everybody in Britain should have the chance to be a somebody, but only one family can provide the Head of State.
“We Liberal Democrats believe in opportunity for all, we believe in fairness and common sense.
“We do not believe that people should be born to rule, or that they should put up and shut up about decisions which affect their everyday lives.”
After the clip resurfaced in July this year, Ms Truss was asked when she realised that she did not want to abolish the monarchy.
“Almost immediately after I’d made that speech,” she told reporters.
“I was a teenager at the time and I do believe that people who never change their mind on anything and think the same at 16 as they do at 46 are, well, first of all, they’re not normal people like I am.
“And second, I’ve got the ability to learn from mistakes I’ve made, things that I’ve done that are wrong and move on.”
Her predecessor, Boris Johnson, formally stepped down during his own audience with the Queen at her Balmoral estate in Scotland.
She will inherit the top job with the country facing a major cost of living crisis, lingering Brexit issues and a climate emergency. On the international front, she will have to navigate the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russian aggression.
Speaking to Conservative Party members on Monday, Truss promised to “deliver” on the economy, the energy crisis and the overstretched healthcare system, though she offered few specifics on her policies.
Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan, reporting from London, said that as Truss settles behind the prime ministerial desk, the political tempo will accelerate immediately.
“Urgent issues are screaming for attention … The number one priority at 10 Downing Street is undoubtedly Britain’s deepening cost-of-living crisis, and central to that is the cost of gas and electricity,” he said.
“IMF data says Britain is being hit harder than any other western European country by massive fuel price rises. In 2021, a typical UK household paid around $1,400 a year for energy. By early next year, an average bill could hit $7,600 a year,” he added.
Born Mary Elizabeth Truss in Oxford on July 26, 1975, the next UK leader had a very un-Conservative upbringing.
Her father John was a university Maths professor and her mother Priscilla was a nurse, and both held strong liberal ideals.
Both of them were involved in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the UK and would take their daughter to rallies calling for the Thatcher government to divest of its nuclear weapons, where a young Liz would chant “Maggie, Maggie, Maggie! Out, Out, Out!”.
“I think it was fair to say that, when I was in my youth, I was a professional controversialist and I liked exploring ideas and stirring things up,” she told the BBC earlier this year.
The family moved around due to John Truss’s job — after Oxford came Paisley in Scotland, followed by a year in Canada, before the family settled in the Yorkshire city of Leeds, where the young Ms Truss completed high school at the comprehensive Roundhay School.
While her schooling led to a place at the prestigious Merton College at Oxford University, she has said she felt many of the children at her school were “let down by low expectations, poor educational standards and a lack of opportunity.”
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