Liz Truss has today been announced as the new leader of the Conservative Party and subsequently the UK's next Prime Minister.
The foreign secretary beat Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership race to succeed Boris Johnson as Tory leader and PM, securing 81,326 votes to Sunak's 50,399.
This comes after Boris Johnson's forced resignation in July.
Truss is expected to take over the role on Tuesday. This will make her the UK's third female Prime Minister in history.
"I am honoured to be elected Leader of the Conservative Party," Truss announced in a statement following the news. "Thank you for putting your trust in me to lead and deliver for our great country."
Her statement continued: "I will take bold action to get all of us through these tough times, grow our economy, and unleash the United Kingdom’s potential."
"During this leadership campaign, I campaigned as a Conservative and I will govern as a conservative," Truss announced later in her acceptance speech. "And my friends, we need to show that we will deliver over the next two years.
"I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy. I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long term issues we have on energy supply. And I will deliver on the National Health Service
"But we all will deliver for our country. And I will make sure that we use all the fantastic talents of the Conservative party, our brilliant members of parliament and peers, our fantastic counsellors, our MSs, our MSPs, all of our councillors and activists and members right across our country. Because, my friends, I know that we will deliver, we will deliver and we will deliver. And we will deliver a great victory for the Conservative Party in 2024."
Liz Truss is expected to take over as Prime Minister on Tuesday, and will, as per tradition, meet with The Queen and be invited to form a government.
We will continue to update this story.
