Liz Truss defeats Rishi Sunak in Tory leadership race to become Britain's new prime minister

Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss won the Conservative Party leadership race on Monday, defeating Rishi Sunak to replace outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson - whose loyalties went against the former Indian-origin chancellor, leading to predictions.

The 47-year-old senior cabinet minister was widely expected to become Britain's third female prime minister after more than 170,000 online and postal votes by Tory members, the first member of parliament of Indian heritage to run for the top job. The historic run of the craze ends at 10 Downing Street.

Truss polled 81,326 votes, 82.6 per cent more than Sunak's 60,399, with 654 void ballots out of a total of 172,437 eligible Tory voters. That meant Truss won by a comfortable margin, but his victory was slim to 57.4 per cent to Sunak's 42.6 per cent in other recent Tory leadership contests - reflecting the split within the governing party.

Sunak, 42, soon took to Twitter to call for party unity: "Thank you to everyone who voted for me in this campaign. I've always said the Conservatives are a family.

"It is fitting that we now unite behind the new prime minister, Liz Truss, as she leads the country through difficult times," said a former Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In his acceptance speech, Truss declared: "We will deliver, we will deliver and we will deliver." "I will deal with the energy crisis, deal with people's energy bills, but also deal with our long-term problems with energy supply," he said, referring to the key issue dominating the leadership campaign, which he called "the one". These are the "longest job interviews in history".

Source by Online media

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--Posted By : santosh