Liz Truss
Liz Truss, born on July 26, 1975, in Oxford, England, became the fifty-sixth prime minister of the United Kingdom on September 6, 2022, following her election as leader of the Conservative Party earlier that summer. She succeeded Boris Johnson, who resigned amid controversies. Truss garnered attention for her promises to cut taxes and maintain strong support for Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict with Russia. However, her political journey has been marked by significant shifts in her views, transitioning from a more liberal stance to aligning with conservative principles.
Before her premiership, Truss served as a Member of Parliament since 2010 and held various cabinet positions, including Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. Her tenure as prime minister was notably brief; she resigned on October 20, 2022, just over six weeks after taking office, primarily due to economic turmoil stemming from her government's unfunded tax cuts. This made her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. Despite her short time in office, Truss remains a significant figure in UK politics, as she was the third woman to hold the prime ministership, following Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher. Beyond her political career, she is a mother of two and enjoys activities such as baking and listening to Taylor Swift.
Subject Terms
Liz Truss
- Born: July 26, 1975
- Place of Birth: Oxford, England
Liz Truss became the fifty-sixth prime minister of the United Kingdom (UK) on September 6, 2022. She was previously elected leader of the Conservative Party in July of that year. Truss was appointed prime minister following the resignation of Boris Johnson, who had served from 2019 to 2022. To select a prime minister, members of the Conservative Party voted to choose either Truss or ex-treasury chief Rishi Sunak, with Truss prevailing after receiving 57 percent of the vote. Truss received initial praise for her promises to cut taxes and continue Britain’s strong support of Ukraine during the Ukrainian-Russian war. However, Truss was also criticized for her fluctuating political opinions, which began as liberal but became conservative. Prior to becoming prime minister, she was a Member of Parliament since 2010 and held several Cabinet offices, including Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. She was Britain’s third female prime minister, after Theresa May (2016–2019) and Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990). After her government implemented policies that worsened the footing of an already tenuous British economy, including the unveiling of nearly £50 billion worth of unfunded tax cuts, Truss announced on October 20, 2022, that she was resigning from the position of prime minister, citing her inability to deliver on her promise of economic growth and stability.
Background
Mary Elizabeth Truss was born on July 26, 1975, in Oxford, England. Her father, John Kenneth Truss, was a mathematics professor at the University of Leeds, while her mother, Priscilla Truss, was a nurse, teacher, and member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Truss has three younger brothers. When she was four, her family moved to Paisley, Scotland, where she went to primary school. They later relocated to Leeds, England, where Truss attended secondary school. Truss has described her parents and socialists and their household as being a “left wing” household and strongly opposed to former Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher.
Truss attended Oxford University, where she studied philosophy, politics, and economics and was president of the university’s Liberal Democratic Party. She was outspoken about her support for legalizing marijuana and abolishing the royal family. After graduating from Oxford, she switched her political stance and joined the Conservative Party. She first worked as an economist for Shell, an energy company, and then Cable and Wireless, a telecommunications company.
Overview
After two unsuccessful attempts to become elected to the House of Commons, Truss was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk in 2010. Two years later, she became the government’s education minister. After this, Truss continued her foray into politics, becoming the UK’s first female Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice in 2016. The next year, she became Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Also in 2016, Truss expressed her opposition to Brexit, Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU). However, she later said she approved the move, explaining that initially she had feared it would cause economic disruptions for her country that did not occur.
Prime Minister
When Boris Johnson became prime minister in 2019, he appointed Truss as Trade Secretary, and as such, she signed post-Brexit trade deals. In 2021, Truss was appointed foreign secretary, which is considered Britain’s top diplomat. In this position, she garnered great praise for staunchly offering her country’s support to Ukraine after it had been invaded by Russia and for arranging the release of two British citizens who had been imprisoned in Iran. However, Truss received criticism for introducing legislation that removed part of the UK-EU divorce agreement that both parties had signed. Because of her actions, the EU initiated legal action against Britain.
Truss became prime minister shortly after Boris Johnson announced his resignation on July 7, 2022. Johnson’s reputation had previously been tarnished by several scandals. The most recent involved his appointment of Chris Pincher as Conservative Deputy Chief Whip after Pincher had been accused of sexual misconduct. To show their disapproval, dozens of Johnson’s ministers and officials resigned, prompting Johnson himself to step down. A Conservative Party leadership election followed, in which Truss ran against Rishi Sunak. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sunak had been one of Johnson’s highest-ranking ministers and one of those who had quit after Johnson’s appointment of Pincher. Truss had remained loyal to Johnson, which many felt gave her an edge during the election.
Truss’s supporters saw her as a fresh start with the potential to push Johnson’s scandals into the past and allow the Conservative Party to remain in power and win a fifth consecutive general election. However, some had pointed out that not all of Truss’s political stances are typically conservative. In the past, she had voted in favor of same-sex marriage, women’s rights and abortion, and against privatizing the Royal Mail, implementing higher taxes on alcohol, and acting to stop climate change. While she has said she supports the LGBTQ community, she is against gender self-identification. She has also said she considers UK workers to be mainly idlers, and she has criticized young people for being too interested in sports and pop music instead of more serious pursuits.
As prime minister, Truss promised to cut taxes and take immediate action to help people struggling with inflation during the cost-of-living crisis. In July 2022, inflation in England rose above 10 percent for the first time in forty years, mainly because of an increase in the cost of energy, food, and fuel. Truss also planned to increase defense spending by 3 percent of Britain’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.
On October 20, 2022, Truss announced her resignation as prime minister after citing her failure to deliver the economic growth and stability she had promised before taking office. Previously, in September, Truss's government had announced unfunded tax cuts valued at £45 billion that resulted in an economic crisis that devalued the British pound to a record low of $1.03 when compared to the US dollar. At the time of her resignation, which came less than two months after taking office, Truss became the shortest-tenured prime minister in British history.
In February 2023, Truss was reselected as the election candidate for South West Norfolk. However, Truss lost the seat during the 2024 general election to challenger Terry Jermy. That same year, Truss published her memoir, Ten Years to Save the West. She was later accused of using a "fabricated" quote in her work, resulting in an apology for the memoir's publisher.
Personal Life
Truss has been married to Hugh O’Leary, an accountant, since 2000. Together they have two daughters, Liberty and Francis. The family has lived in Thetford, a town in Norfolk, since about 2010. Truss has joked that her family has dubbed her the “phone jailer” because in the past she has locked up her daughters’ phones to keep them from using them too much. She has also said she is a huge Taylor Swift fan, enjoys espressos, and bakes from scratch in her spare time.
Bibliography
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