BIOGRAPHY: Liz Truss Mary emerges new British Prime Minister

Liz Truss emerges new British Prime Minister. 

She polled a total of 81, 326 to beat

Rishi Sunak whonpolled a total of 60,399 in the Conservative Party’s election.

Truss takes over from Boris Johnson who resigned from office in July.

BIOGRAPHY of Liz Truss:

Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who is the newly-elected Leader of the Conservative Party and is expected to be appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 6 September 2022. She has served as the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs since 2021 and Minister for Women and Equalities since 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, Truss has been Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk since 2010. She has served in various Cabinet positions under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

Mary Elizabeth Truss was born on 26 July 1975 in Oxford, England, to John Kenneth and Priscilla Mary Truss. She has three younger brothers. From an early age, she has been known by her middle name. Her father is an emeritus professor of pure mathematics at the University of Leeds while her mother was a nurse, teacher and member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Truss has described her parents as being “to the left of Labour”.When Truss later stood for election to Parliament as a Conservative, her mother agreed to campaign for her, while her father declined to do so.

The family moved to Paisley, Renfrewshire, in Scotland when she was four years old, living there from 1979 to 1985, with Truss attending West Primary School. She then attended Roundhay School, in the Roundhay area of Leeds, a school which she later said had “let down” children. She then lived in Canada for a year. Truss has praised its coherent curriculum and the Canadian attitude that it was “really good to be top of the class”, in contrast to her education at Roundhay School. Truss was remembered by adolescent classmates as a studious girl with “geeky” friends. She reportedly had an interest in social issues such as homelessness. She read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Merton College, Oxford, graduating in 1996.

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 (LDYS). During her time as a Liberal Democrat, Truss supported the legalisation of cannabis and the abolition of the monarchy, and campaigned against the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

Truss joined the Conservative Party in 1996. In 2000, Truss married Hugh O’Leary, a fellow accountant; the couple have two daughters. From 2004 until mid-2005, she had an extramarital affair with the married MP Mark Field, whom the Conservative Party had appointed as her political mentor. However, her marriage with O’Leary survived the affair.

In 2022, Truss said: “I share the values of the Christian faith and the Church of England, but I’m not a regular practising religious person”.