Liz Truss is the U.K.’s New Prime Minister: What Does That Mean for Britain?

By Alexandre Assant

London, United Kingdom

Liz Truss of the Conservative Party won the vote for Prime Minister by a significant margin. (Sky News)

Liz Truss defeated her primary opponent Rishi Sunak by 57.4% to 42.6% in a Conservative Party vote to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a result which had been expected by many. Over 30,000 Conservative Party Members did not vote—simply 20,000 would have been sufficient to turn the tide in favour of Sunak, previous Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The vital question remains, what are Liz Truss’s initiatives, and how does she plan to run the country during her time at No. 10? Truss recently announced plans to reduce taxes, although some suggest that this will only assist the classes who are well-off and this initiative may in fact not help the families in the United Kingdom who are struggling financially. Many may have difficulty paying soaring energy bills this coming winter, one which is predicted to be the coldest the country has seen in 25 years.

Although the Conservative Member of Parliament had to appeal to the Conservative Party Members during the final showdown, the idea to cut taxes seems ill-timed at a moment of huge economic and social insecurity. Truss also claims she will “grow the economy” whilst delivering on this tax reduction promise. It however does not require an expert economist to question these dubious conflicting statements.

The new PM has been very vague as to what she plans to do to overcome the energy crisis; only recently stating that she would “deal with it,” but not detailing how this tremendous issue would be tackled. It seems that Liz Truss later decided to set up a £100 billion loan, approved by the government, with which she attempts to freeze energy bills, which have more than tripled on average in the past 18 months per household.

Although it seems encouraging that Liz Truss should take action early on in her term, reducing taxes in the United Kingdom, despite how fabulous this idea may seem at face value, would make it very difficult for the UK to pay back the current £2.82 trillion of debt which it owes, as well as the hundreds of billions of pounds that the country will need to procure in order to overcome the devastating challenge that people will face this winter.