Liz Truss was announced as the next Conservative leader and UK Prime Minister on Monday.
The former foreign secretary took 57% of the votes, defeating Rishi Sunak with 81,326 votes to 60,399. She said it was an “honour” to be elected and joked it was “one of the longest job interviews in history”.
Trust is expected to make a short speech later this afternoon, and to finalise her choices for the Cabinet and other ministerial roles before being formally appointed by the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday.
She is not due to announce any policy until she enters Downing Street but the cost-of-living crisis will likely be top of Truss’s agenda, amid reports she is considering a freeze on energy bills.
According to The Times, Truss will announce a vast support package on the scale of the Covid furlough scheme to deal with surging energy costs. It said that senior Tories lined up for appointments in her cabinet have been told “in no uncertain terms” not to scorn the idea that energy bills could be frozen.
The Times cited a senior government figure as saying that the scale of the package being looked at would “at least” be in the region of the £69bn cost of the furlough scheme and “could be more”. “No one has come up with any option to do it for less,” the source said.
