Liz Truss was named leader of the ruling Conservative Party and Britain's next prime minister on Monday, taking power as the country faces a cost-of-living crisis, industrial unrest and recession.
After weeks of an often bitter and divisive party leadership battle that pitted Truss against India's Rishi Sunak, a former finance minister, Monday's announcement triggered the start of a handover from Boris Johnson.
Truss was declared the winner of the Conservative Party leadership election with 81,326 votes, defeating Rishi Sunak who received 60,399 votes.
"We have to show that we will deliver over the next two years. I will put forward a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy," Truss said after the result was announced.
"I will tackle the energy crisis, I will tackle people's energy bills, but I will also tackle the long-term problems we have with energy supply."
A vote by Tory members for their choice between Sunak and Truss, which began in early August, ended on Friday night.
Almost 52 per cent said Truss would be a "pathetic" or "terrible" prime minister, while 43 per cent said they did not trust her "at all" to tackle the high cost of living issues. Another 37 percent of Britons believe she will be almost the same as her predecessor.
The two candidates passed the postal ballot of all Tory members, numbering around 160,000 Tory voters, to replace outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Johnson was forced to announce his resignation in July after months of scandal and will travel to Scotland on Tuesday to meet Queen Elizabeth to formally tender his resignation. His successor will succeed him and will be asked to form a government.
Truss, long a front-runner in the fight to replace Johnson, has become the fourth Conservative prime minister since the election in 2015. During that period the country has lurched from crisis to crisis and is now facing what is predicted to be a long recession fueled by skyrocketing inflation, which in in July it reached 10.1 percent.
Johnson's foreign secretary, Truss, 47, has vowed to act quickly to tackle Britain's cost of living crisis and said she would come up with a plan within a week to deal with rising energy bills and secure future fuel supplies.
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