Liz Truss is under huge immediate pressure after securing a narrower-than-expected victory to become leader of the Conservative Party and the UK’s new prime minister, with the backbench warning she has just six months to save the party from electoral defeat.
Mrs Truss promised cheering Tory campaigners “we will deliver, we will deliver, we will deliver” when she was announced as party leader in the same Westminster conference center where Boris Johnson took the crown just over three years ago.
Senior aides confirmed she was negotiating with energy companies a support package worth up to £100bn to offset forecast rises in average household fuel bills from £1,971 to £3,549 in October and £7,000 or more by spring.
But storm clouds were already gathering over her premiership as polls showed voters were disillusioned with her arrival at 10 Downing Street and lacked faith in her ability to solve the cost-of-living crisis.
Her 57% to 43% margin of victory over rival Rishi Sunak was the narrowest since rule changes put the choice of leader in the hands of Tory members, with her result even lower than the 60.7% secured by Ian Duncan Smith in 2001.
Home Secretary Priti Patel left the government before she could be pushed out after briefings indicated there would be no place for her in the cabinet that Mrs Truss will name on Tuesday. Johnson’s close ally Nigel Adams also quit his Cabinet job.
Meanwhile, a leading One Nation Tory has warned fellow centrists that they are risking their political reputations if they want to take on the Truss administration, which he warned will be dominated by culture war attacks against “the enemy as awakened green warriors who complain”.
Mrs Truss is expected to appoint a hard-right cabinet made up of her personal supporters when she arrives at Downing Street after being confirmed as Prime Minister by the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday.
Close ally Kwasi Kwarteng will be appointed chancellor, with Suella Braverman taking over the Home Office, James Cleverley expected to head the Foreign Office and Jacob Rees-Mogg tipped to be Mrs Truss’s business secretary.
But leading centrists are lining up for posts, including former lord chancellor Sir Robert Buckland – set to become Welsh secretary – and Tom Tugendhat, who is believed to be offered a security role.
A former minister said The Independent they would “regret” joining an administration that would be “a repeat of Boris 2019”.
Mr Sunak, who is not expected to take part in the new government, urged his supporters to “now rally behind new Prime Minister Liz Truss as she leads the country through difficult times”.
And MPs who backed his candidacy have made it clear there will be no immediate rebellion against the new prime minister, indicating they will give her a chance to use her “two-track” approach to contain energy bills in the short term. while increasing supply for the future.
An aide to the new Tory leader said he now accepted the “sticking plaster” was needed immediately but insisted the bailout approach “cannot go on indefinitely”.
Her plan has yet to be finalised, but it is believed that it could include loans to companies to be repaid over many years while wholesale prices fall. It will be unveiled within seven days and possibly as early as Thursday, while Mr Kwarteng will set out wider tax-cutting plans in an emergency budget before parliament adjourns for conference season on September 23.
Kevin Hollinrake – who previously warned that Mrs Truss’ focus on tax cuts rather than handouts would put low-income families “out on the streets” – said The Independent that the new Prime Minister will not be given a “free pass” from the Tory backbenches.
“We have a Conservative prime minister elected by Conservative members – the default position is to support the prime minister,” he said. “Everyone knows that if we are divided, it is manna from heaven for the opposition.
But he added: “On the backbenches, your job is to watch the government. We’re not going to give her a free pass. We will look into it carefully. We cannot have a situation where the people who benefit most from tax cuts are the rich and the people most affected by energy prices are the poor.
Liz Truss was booed and booed as she entered Tory HQ after winning the leadership race
A former minister who was instrumental in Mr Sunak’s campaign said: “We could have lost the race but we won the argument. Rishi spent the summer arguing for targeted support for the most vulnerable, and look what we’re going to get now.
“The question for Liz now is whether she can get over the fact that she told members one thing and now she’s going to have to do the exact opposite. The public may not notice, but the party will, and there will be grumbling.”
This was said by Andrew Bridgen, who supported the former chancellor’s failed bid The Independent: “We’ve had eight weeks of getting away from each other – the country won’t forgive us if we don’t come together. I think we’re going to come together, and if that’s not the opinion of all my colleagues, it should be.”
But he said Mrs Truss only had a limited amount of time to save the Tories’ prospects for the general election, which she said would be held in 2024, quashing speculation of a snap election.
“Liz said she would ‘deliver, deliver, deliver,'” Mr Bridgen said. “We have two years. The future of this government will be decided in the next six months on how we get through this winter and this cost of living crisis. By then people will know whether she was successful or not and the polls will reflect that.
Ms Truss has vowed to govern according to Conservative beliefs of “freedom, the ability to control your life, low taxes and personal responsibility” and deliver on the promises that won Mr Johnson an 80-seat majority in 2019.
“I will implement a bold plan to cut taxes and grow the economy,” she said in a brief victory speech. “I will deal with the energy crisis by dealing with people’s energy bills but also with the long-term problems we have with energy prices. And I will provide the NHS.
Mrs Truss – who later celebrated her triumph with lunch with her husband Hugh – said she was “honoured” to be elected leader by the 171,437 Conservative MPs who cast 81,326 for her and 60,399 for Mr n Sunak.
She paid tribute to “my friend” Boris Johnson, who she said “delivered Brexit, crushed Jeremy Corbyn, launched the vaccine and stood up to Vladimir Putin”.
Awkward silence from MPs after Liz Truss says Boris Johnson ‘delighted from Kyiv to Carlisle’
But there was an awkward silence in the room as she sent a message to the outgoing prime minister: “You are admired from Kyiv to Carlisle.”
Polls show only tepid support for the third Conservative prime minister in a row to be chosen by the party rather than voters in a general election.
A YouGov poll of 2,500 voters found that half (50 per cent) – including a third (33 per cent) of Tory voters in 2019 – were disappointed with her choice. Just one in seven (14 per cent) say they believe she will make a better prime minister than Mr Johnson, and one in five (19 per cent) say they have confidence in her to handle the cost of living.
A separate poll by Savanta ComRes found that only 18 percent believed she could unite the country, against half (51 percent) who thought she could not. Only 18 percent have a positive opinion of the new prime minister, only 10 percent think her party is united, and 60 percent say she should call an election by the end of the year.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said Truss’ focus on tax cuts on targeted support for households showed she was “not on the side of working people”, while shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said the Tories were like ” a gang of arsonists who say to the country, “Trust me to put out the fire.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called for a general election, saying: “Under Liz Truss we are set to see more of the same crisis and chaos as under Boris Johnson.”
But Mr Johnson himself – who will make a farewell statement on the steps of Number 10 at 7.30 on Tuesday before flying to Balmoral to hand in his resignation to the Queen – said his successor “has the right plan to deal with the crisis with the cost of living, uniting our party and continuing the great work of uniting and leveling our country”.