Liz Truss becomes British Prime Minister

Liz Truss will move into Downing Street today, Tuesday, after a bitter battle to succeed Britain's Prime Minister, and immediately begin work on a two-year energy savings package that could cost up to £100 billion.

In a vote by Conservative party members, the Foreign Secretary prevailed against her competitor, former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, with 81,326 votes to 60,399 (57:43), thereby succeeding Boris Johnson.

Truss will meet the Queen at Balmoral, the monarch's country home, on Tuesday, before returning immediately to London to announce her cabinet and address the country's economic crisis.

She will become Britain's 56th Prime Minister and the fourth Tory occupation of the No10 in just over six years. She will also be the country's third female prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.

Truss is trying to contain energy prices - the average household bill will rise from almost £2,000 to over £3,500 in October - through costly market intervention to prevent household misery and the economy from collapsing.

Kwasi Kwarteng, who is expected to become Truss' chancellor, wrote in the Financial Times on Sunday that "decisive action is needed to get families and businesses through this winter and next".

Truss' team said the total package would not exceed £100bn but could come close given the scale of support needed to help households and protect small businesses.

For 27.4m households, freezing gas and electricity bills at the current typical annual cost of £1,971 would cost around £40bn a year, but that bill would rise sharply if wholesale gas prices remain at their current high levels .

They are currently at £5 per therm, 66 per cent higher than the £3 per therm benchmark that underpins the £3,549 retail energy price cap coming into effect next month.

Kwarteng is weighing up whether the massive state intervention in the energy market should be offset by general taxation or by a future levy on consumer bills - the latter could be politically problematic.

Truss also wants to reform energy markets to lower bills. It wants nuclear and renewable energy producers to voluntarily sign new 15-year contracts at fixed prices well below current tariffs, which give them profits tied to grossly inflated gas prices.

Truss paid tribute to outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, saying he was "admired from Kyiv to Carlisle".

"I will come up with a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy, while addressing people's energy bills and also the long-term problems of energy supply," she added.

Truss promised a "great" Conservative victory in a vote in 2024, but Monday's polls show just how tough the challenge is.

A YouGov poll found that just 14 percent of Brits think Truss is a better prime minister than Johnson. A Survation poll showed the opposition Labor Party ahead of the Tories by 46-29 points.

The 47-year-old new Prime Minister, who has been in Cabinet for eight years, has pledged a right-wing agenda of tax cuts, funded largely by borrowing, to keep the UK from sliding into a protracted recession.

Truss won the party chairmanship after a protracted and bitter battle to succeed Johnson, who resigned on July 7 after a cabinet mutiny led by Sunak over his conduct as prime minister.

Presenting herself as Margaret Thatcher's successor, Truss promised tax cuts and less regulation, and stressed that it was wrong to view all economic policy through the lens of 'redistribution'.

On foreign policy, she took a tough stance on Russia and vowed to stay in the fray to hold post-Brexit Northern Ireland trade deals against Brussels.

Truss is due to announce her new cabinet on Tuesday. Kwarteng will be her Chancellor, while Secretary of State James Cleverly is expected to be promoted to Foreign Secretary. Attorney General Suella Braverman is expected to replace Priti Patel, who died on Tuesday Monday resigned as

other key appointments, Jacob Rees-Mogg, a right-wing Johnson ally, is expected to become business secretary and be in charge of energy policy.Ben Wallace remains defense secretary, while Truss' ally Thérèse Coffey as health sministerin is traded.