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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 Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno, says he has concluded plans to join the All Progressives Congress (APC) in no distant time.
He has reportedly mandated his commissioners and other appointees to either join him in the APC or resign if they are not comfortable with his decision.
A Government House source, who confirmed the development, said the governor broke the news during the State Executive Council meeting on Thursday.
The source, who pleaded anonymity, said Governor Eno warned his appointees that he had nothing to negotiate with them other than for them to follow him or leave.
The governor was quoted as saying, “Anybody who claims he is not aware of my intention to leave the PDP is still living in the 18th century.
“Apart from elected officials like House of Assembly members and Local Government Chairmen, I have nothing to negotiate with you.
“Let me tell you, anybody who believes that when I leave the PDP he will use the party structure to fight me is lying, because I will still control the PDP structure.”
Eno disclosed that he is in love with the leadership style of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu and, as such, would like to align with him.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman in the state, Aniekan Akpan, could not confirm the development at the time of filing this report, as his lines were busy. However, the Director of the APC Media Network, Mr. Iniobong John, confirmed the news to journalists.
John said, “It is no longer a rumour. I think there are some confirmations that the governor is defecting to the APC. Though unofficial, I can confirm that the governor is joining our party sooner or later. No official date has been confirmed yet, but all plans have been perfected for his defection to our party.”
He described the proposed defection as great news for the APC in the state and for Akwa Ibom in general, adding that the state would now be better connected to the national power center.
Daily Post
The All Progressives Congress has endorsed President Bola Tinubu as its flag bearer in the 2027 presidential elections.
The Party’s National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, announced this on Thursday, on behalf of its National Working Committee, at its National Summit held at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja.
The endorsement came hours after APC governors and lawmakers cast a vote of confidence on the president and endorsed him for a second term.
The Federal Government has filed a criminal suit against the senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, over comments she made on national television that were allegedly deemed defamatory.
The case, marked CR/297/25, was filed on May 16, 2025, before the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, with Akpoti-Uduaghan listed as the sole defendant.
According to court documents, the government is charging the senator under Section 391 of the Penal Code (Cap 89, Laws of the Federation, 1990) for allegedly “making imputation knowing or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm the reputation of a person.”
The said comments were allegedly made during a live broadcast of Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ on April 3, 2025, where Akpoti-Uduaghan was said to have criticised unnamed individuals in a manner the government claimed was defamatory.
Count two of the charges accused Akpoti-Uduaghan of “making an imputation knowing or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm the reputation of a person, contrary to Section 391 of the Penal Code Law, Cap. 89, Laws of the Federation, 1990, and punishable under Section 392 of the same Law.
“That you, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, on or about the 3rd day of April 2025, during the same Politics Today programme on Channels Television in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, made the following imputation concerning Yahaya Adoza Bello, former Governor of Kogi State.
“It was part of the meeting, the discussions that Akpabio had with Yahaya Bello that night to eliminate me. When he met with him, he then emphasised that I should be killed, but I should be killed in Kogi.
“You knew or had reason to believe that such imputations would harm the reputation of Yahaya Adoza Bello, former Governor of Kogi State”, the charge added.
Among the witnesses lined up to testify include Senate President Godswill Akpabio and former Kogi State governor Yahaya Bello, who are identified in court filings as the nominal complainants.
Other witnesses listed include Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong, Sandra Duru, and police investigators Maya Iliya and Abdulhafiz Garba, who were involved in probing the matter.
The former Kogi governor had in April, petitioned the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), accusing Akpoti-Uduaghan, of making defamatory statements against him.
The former Kogi governor alleged that during a homecoming event on April 1, 2025, in Okehi Local Government Area, the female lawmaker ‘maliciously’ defamed him and accused him of being involved in an assassination plot.
The case comes amid ongoing political tensions surrounding Akpoti-Uduaghan, who was suspended from the Senate earlier this year. Her suspension sparked widespread criticism and allegations of political persecution.
Akpoti-Uduaghan had accused Akpabio of targeting her after she rejected his alleged sexual advances, claiming that her suspension was orchestrated to silence her.
She made the allegations following the altercation over sitting arrangement in the Senate Chamber that led to Akpabio ordering the sergeant-at-arms to eject her from the chamber when she rejected the seat offered to her.
She is challenging her suspension at the Federal High Court, where the hearing has been scheduled for June 27.
Source: ICIR
