Liz Truss is the U.K.’s next prime minister : NPR

Britain’s Prime Minister-elect Liz Truss pledged to deliver on a range of issues after being named the new Conservative Party leader on Monday. Truss will be the U.K.’s third female prime minister, following Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.

Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images

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Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images

Britain’s Prime Minister-elect Liz Truss pledged to deliver on a range of issues after being named the new Conservative Party leader on Monday. Truss will be the U.K.’s third female prime minister, following Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.

Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images

LONDON — Britain’s Conservative Party has announced its new leader is Liz Truss, who has served as foreign minister for the past 12 months. She will be formally appointed as the next prime minister by Queen Elizabeth, likely on Tuesday afternoon.

“I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy,” Truss said in her victory speech, adding that she will also take on challenges from high energy bills to the National Health Service.

The result follows a nationwide vote by the party’s grassroots members that lasted several weeks this summer. Truss will become the country’s fourth leader in a politically turbulent six-year period.

It marks only the third time in history that a woman will assume power in 10 Downing Street, but the third time in recent years that a change of prime minister has occurred without a national general election.

“We will deliver, we will deliver, and we will deliver,” Truss said, echoing a key campaign theme. “And we will deliver a great victory for the Conservative Party in 2024” — when the next national elections are slated to be held.

Truss replaces Boris Johnson, who was laid low by a succession of scandals that crescendoed in the first half of this year. After losing support of not only the majority of his fellow Conservative legislators, but also many of his own ministers, he was forced to resign.

Truss spent the summer campaigning against Rishi Sunak, the U.K.’s former finance minister who was her rival for the Conservative leadership. The contest was decided by the votes of almost 142,000 party members. Truss secured more than 81,000 of those votes, the lowest proportion of any leader in recent history.

Johnson has continued to serve as a caretaker leader for the past few months, and he is expected to meet with the monarch in Scotland on Tuesday to tender his official resignation.

As new leader, Truss will likely make a statement outside 10 Downing Street later Tuesday. She will immediately face responsibility for a rapidly escalating energy crisis in Britain, with…