Liz Truss becomes the UK’s new Prime Minister as she meets The Queen

Liz Truss is now the UK’s new Prime Minister, after her appointment was formally approved by The Queen.

Truss, who won the Conservative Party leadership race, met her majesty this lunchtime (September 6) at Balmoral Castle to accept an invite to form a new government. It came shortly after Boris Johnson also travelled up to Scotland to tender his resignation.

In her acceptance speech yesterday, Truss said it was an honour to be announced as the winner after a “hard-fought campaign” against Rishi Sunak.

Paying tribute to her predecessor Johnson, she said he had led the UK through the coronavirus, while also hailing him for “standing up” to Vladimir Putin against his invasion of Ukraine.

Truss now the UK’s third female PM after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May, Truss now has a busy week ahead. She has the task of choosing who will serve as her cabinet ministers, while working out her first impactful moves as PM.

Suella Braverman has been tipped as Home Secretary, while James Cleverly is believed to be a frontrunner for Foreign Secretary and Kwasi Kwarteng could be chancellor.

The leadership contest was sparked in July, when Boris Johnson announced he would stand down following a number of scandals – including breaching his own lockdown rules within government.

His decision to stand down was finally prompted by the revelation he had promoted Chris Pincher to Deputy Chief Whip, despite knowing he faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.

The leadership campaign then began on July 12, with eight candidates securing the backing of 20 of their MP colleagues.

Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman, Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat and Nadhim Zahawi all made it onto the ballot for the first stage of voting, before Truss and Sunak eventually made the final stage.