Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has asked Liz Truss to become the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Truss succeeds Boris Johnson, who had recently tendered his resignation to the Queen.
The so-called ‘kissing hands’ ceremony was performed in Scotland’s Balmoral Castle, with the Head of Government and the Queen now shaking hands.
Yesterday, the Conservative Party announced that Truss has won the leadership election of Rishi Sunak and would become the new prime minister. 57 percent of Conservative members voted for Truss, the foreign secretary in Johnson’s cabinet. Johnson gave a farewell speech at Downing Street this morning before heading to Balmoral Castle to tender his resignation.
Truss is the fifteenth prime minister to be ceremonially asked to be prime minister by Elizabeth. Her first time was with Winston Churchill, after her father’s death in 1952.
Abolish monarchy
When Truss was 19, she advocated the abolition of the monarchy in one of her first public appearances. She said she realized “almost immediately after that speech” that it was a mistake. She has changed her mind and is now a supporter of the royal family.
After the visit to the Queen, Truss will fly back to London to assemble her team of ministers as soon as possible, because tomorrow is already the first parliamentary question time. The opposition wants to know from her how she is going to tackle the rising costs of energy and living costs. According to Bloomberg news agency, the new prime minister plans to allocate 130 billion pounds (151 billion euros) to save households from high energy bills. In addition, a £40 billion package would be ready to support companies.
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