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Liz Truss: UK’s New Prime Minister
Liz Truss was, on Monday, announced as the new leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, having defeated her rival, Rishi Sunak, in a Tory vote where she polled 81,326 votes to beat Sunak who polled 60,399 votes.
As the leader of the ruling Conservative Party, Truss is now British Prime Minister, replacing Boris Johnson who resigned early July after a scandal-hit government.
Truss, 47, will be the third UK female Prime Minister following Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
Before her emergence as Tory leader and British PM, Truss was UK’s Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs since 2021 and Minister for Women and Equalities since 2019.
Here are some things to know about the third female British Prime Minister:
1 – Liz Truss (Mary Elizabeth Truss) was born on July 26, 1975 in Oxford, England, to John Kenneth and Priscilla Mary Truss.
2 – Truss attended West Primary School in Paisley, Scotland. She then attended Roundhay School, in the Roundhay area of Leeds.
3 – She read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Merton College, Oxford, graduating in 1996.
4 – Truss was active in the Liberal Democrats. She was president of Oxford University Liberal Democrats and a member of the national executive committee of Liberal Democrat Youth and Students. During her time as a Liberal Democrat, Truss supported the legalisation of cannabis and the abolition of the monarchy.
5 – She joined the Conservative Party in 1996.
6 – Truss worked for Shell from 1996 t0 2000, during which time she qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant in 1999.
7 – She was employed by Cable & Wireless in 2000 and rose to economic director before leaving in 2005.
8 – Truss served as the chair of the Lewisham Deptford Conservative Association from 1998 to 2000.
9 – She unsuccessfully contested the Greenwich London Borough Council elections in 1998 (for Vanbrugh ward) and 2002 (in Blackheath Westcombe).
10 – She was elected as a councillor for Eltham South in the Greenwich London Borough Council election on May 4, 2026.
11 – Under David Cameron as Conservative leader, Truss was added to the party’s ‘A List’.
12 – On September 4, 2012, Truss was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education, with responsibility for childcare and early learning, assessment, qualifications and curriculum reform, behaviour and attendance, and school food review.
13 – In a July 15, 2014 cabinet reshuffle, Truss was appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, replacing Owen Paterson.
14 – On July 14, 2016, Truss was appointed as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor in Theresa May’s first ministry. She became the first woman to hold either position and the first female Lord Chancellor in the thousand-year history of the office.
15 – On June 11, 2017, following the general election, she was moved to the position of Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
16 – She was promoted by Boris Johnson to the position of Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade. Following the resignation of Amber Rudd, Truss was additionally appointed Minister for Women and Equalities.
17 – On September 15, 2021, during a cabinet reshuffle, Johnson promoted Truss from International Trade Secretary to Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, thus becoming the second woman to hold the position after Margaret Beckett.
18 – On July 10, 2022, Truss announced her intention to run in the Conservative Party leadership election to replace Boris Johnson after the latter’s resignation.
19 – On September 5, 2022, Truss won the Conservative Party’s election as party leader, beating her rival, Sunak.
20 – On September 6, 2022, Liz Truss will be officially made the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, becoming the third female to occupy that position.
The first hostages freed from Gaza under a long-awaited ceasefire agreement are back in Israel. The news sparked jubilant scenes in Tel Aviv where large crowds gathered ahead of their release.
The three freed Israeli hostages – the first of 33 to be released over the next six weeks – are Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They are said to be in good health and are receiving treatment at a medical center in Tel Aviv.
In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military withdrew from several locations in southern and northern Gaza after the truce began earlier on Sunday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Displaced Gazans have started returning to their homes, while the aid trucks laden with much-needed supplies have crossed into Gaza. Here’s what we know about how the ceasefire deal will work.
Hamas, despite suffering devastating losses, is framing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a victory for itself, and a failure for Israel.
One of Hamas’ main goals for taking some 250 people during its brazen October 7, 2023, attack on Israel was to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. As Israel pounded Gaza in response, Hamas vowed not to return the hostages until Israel withdrew its forces from the enclave, permanently ended the war, and allowed for rebuilding.
Source: CNN
The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.
“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.
“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.
“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.
“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.
She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.
She said: “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.
“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
