Liz Truss

Penny Mordaunt knocked out in final day of voting by MPs as party members now prepare to pick PM.

He topped the MPs’ vote in every round, and always seemed likely to progress. Jonathan Gullis, one of the MPs elected in 2019, endorsed Truss on Tuesday morning. The foreign secretary’s campaign began slowly, hampered by a somewhat wooden style and mixed performances in TV debates, where Sunak more than once castigated her proposed programme of tax cuts and untested monetary interventions. The former health secretary Jeremy Hunt and Nadhim Zahawi, who succeeded Sunak as chancellor, were eliminated in the first round. In a statement, Mordaunt congratulated the others but called on them to end the fighting: “Politics isn’t easy. Truss, the foreign secretary, who had trailed Mordaunt throughout the previous rounds, took 113 votes, ahead of Mordaunt’s 105.

'Totally on-brand for ERG to back truly useless Remainer', says PM's former adviser.

Start your Independent Premium subscription today. But many are believed to have gone to the foreign secretary after ardent Brexiteer Suella Braverman was defeated at an earlier round in the race. By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply. By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply.

Around 180,000 Tory members will decide which of the two candidates will lead Britain, after Conservative MPs voted out Penny Mordaunt in the final round of ...

The former chancellor said: ‘I’ll work as hard as I can to get our message out to the country. Ms Coffey also told the crowd: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we’re in it to win it.’ The foreign secretary’s first tweet after the votes came in said she was ‘ready to hit the ground from day one’.

Liz Truss is getting closer to potentially becoming the next leader of the the Conservative Party - but as Foreign Secretary she's not been adverse to a few ...

What I would say is that we (laughs) have had a period where..." "I don't know why it's funny. Truss quickly made a U-turn on her comments, and claimed that she was just "expressing support for the Ukrainian cause" when she said she would "absolutely" support Brits who wanted to fight. "Well, I, er. Have you been adversely affected?" How have you been affected.

The highest office in the land is now within grasping distance for the Foreign Secretary.

“That is a disgrace,” she insisted, deadpan. “I got no votes,” she conceded. After the unsuccessful runs for the Tories in Hemsworth in 2001 and Calder Valley in 2005, she was elected as a councillor in Greenwich in 2006 before becoming deputy director of the right-of-centre Reform think tank two years later. Ms Truss worked as an accountant for Shell and Cable & Wireless but her heart was in politics, though she suffered the setbacks of two failed electoral bids. “It was in Scottish so it was ‘Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, oot, oot, oot,” she has told the BBC. Born in Oxford in 1975 to parents she describes as “left-wing”, her mother, a nurse and a teacher, took a young Ms Truss to marches for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1980s and to “peace camp”.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is one of two finalists in the race to replace Boris Johnson as Britain's prime minister.

But EU leaders and officials hoping she would bring a softer tone to the U.K.’s relations with the bloc have been disappointed. In Britain’s 2016 referendum on whether to leave the European Union, Truss backed the losing “remain” side. As foreign secretary, Truss has been front and center in Britain’s support for Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia over the invasion of its neighbor. Britain’s foreign secretary is one of the two final contenders to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative Party leader and prime minister. She ran unsuccessfully for Parliament twice before being elected to represent the eastern England seat of Southwest Norfolk in 2010. Many praise her firm response to the invasion of Ukraine, and she secured the release of two British nationals jailed in Iran where her predecessors had failed.

Ex-No10 aide Dominic Cummings said leadership hopeful Liz Truss 'blows up all she touches' and claimed Boris Johnson was supporting her so he could 'make a ...

"Why did I give her this nickname? In his advice to his successor - and a dig at Tory MPs who plotted to oust him - Mr Johnson said: "Focus on the road ahead, but always remember to check the rear-view mirror." Mr Cummings claimed the PM - who he nicknamed the "shopping trolley" due to his repeated U-turns - was backing her as he wants another chance at power.

Only two candidates are left in the race to be next leader of the Conservative party. Our panellists tell us who they think will win.

He is the preference of most of his cabinet and MP colleagues as well as of opinion polls of the general public. That person is Sunak. He may also lack experience, but his performance at the Treasury during Johnson’s nightmare premiership suggests a man of sound judgment, caution and competence. Rishi Sunak has two months to convince the Conservative membership that they should mirror the support given to him by fellow MPs. The former chancellor may have won the most votes from colleagues in his leadership bid, but his opponent, Liz Truss is – at the time of writing – that bit more popular with the Tory base. It has long stipulated that the government of the country should be led by the person who commands majority support of the House of Commons. They live predominantly in the south of England. That the nation’s leadership should hang on this tiny unrepresentative group is a perversion of parliamentary democracy. The decision of Truss versus Rishi Sunak now goes to a bizarre “selectorate” of the Tory party members. But a month is plenty of time for the former chancellor to turn things around. At present, Liz Truss is the favourite to win the second round; Conservative party members are not, in the main, well-disposed towards high taxes, even in aid of the impeccably Tory goal of not funding day-to-day spending by borrowing. But for now, he remains the candidate who seems more likely to reassure those voters that the Conservatives remain a sensible, acceptable option – and more than anything else, Tory activists want a winner. Yet while there is an immediate need to cut the cost of living by redistributing wealth and upgrading social infrastructure, there is no urgent necessity to cut the deficit. It is maybe why the economic debate between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss seems so utterly removed from the reality of British capitalism today. This is especially true of the Conservative party, whose members – overwhelmingly rich, old, white and male – will select the country’s next prime minister.

Penny Mordaunt out of the race for Tory leader as Sunak wins backing of 137 MPs and Truss bags 113 votes.

Mel Stride, the Sunak campaign’s chief whip, sent a WhatsApp message around to supportive MPs on Wednesday afternoon urging them to weigh in behind him and not lend their votes elsewhere to try and influence who he would go up against. We must all now work together to unify our party and focus on the job that needs to be done.” One former Badenoch supporter said that, ahead of the final ballot, he was approached by 13 different supporters of Truss trying to get him on board. Johnson will step aside September 6. Trailing Truss by just eight votes in a knife-edge joust for second place was Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt, whose campaign enjoyed an early surge only to falter in the final stages. The evidence shows that’s Rishi.”

Final two vying to be PM will make their case to Tory members.

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Analysis: in the most unpredictable leadership race in years, MPs' vote was closer than final two would have liked.

But she did have the advantage of Tuesday night’s result, which knocked out Badenoch. Truss’s team were fishing for votes in an easier pool, with her having positioned herself as the flagbearer of the right of the party. Many of those she already knows; Truss has always prioritised outreach to her parliamentary colleagues, holding surgeries in the tea rooms and hosting “fizz with Liz” (a term that has become legendary in SW1 but which her allies say she has never used). Since the race began, Truss has declined all broadcast interviews, apart from the debates, focusing on honing her message to MPs. She convinced a new generation of “red wall” MPs that she could be the standard bearer for Brexit, showing her commitment to the cause with evidence of trade deals signed and the Northern Ireland protocol bill.

Hugh Laurie has mocked Tory leadership candidate Liz Truss for a since-deleted tweet in which she assured her supporters that she would “hit the ground”.

Truss is the strong favourite to be the next prime minister. We’ve hit the ground over and over with you and your selfish and greedy friends! Seconds after the result of the latest vote was announced, Truss tweeted: “Thank you for putting your trust in me.

Miss Truss was recorded in 1994 speaking about how she surveyed a 'reactionary-looking' trio of voters who told her that they had had 'enough' of the Royal ...

My approach is rooted firmly in Conservative values of aspiration, enterprise and freedom, which I know are shared across the country.' We Liberal Democrats believe in opportunity for all. We do not believe people are born to rule.' 'We came across a group of three people. We've had enough".' A 19-year-old Liz Truss was applauded by the Lib Dem conference in 1994 when she advocated for a motion calling for republicanism in the UK.

Dominic Cummings claims Boris Johnson is supporting Liz Truss to be prime minister as he 'thinks 'she'll blow and he can make a comeback'.

Another told the Mirror he was ‘deluded’ but confirmed he wanted to return to office. A friend of the Tory leader has reportedly claimed he ‘really thinks he will be back’. The British leader has refused to say who he is backing in the race to Number 10 after he was forced out of office by his own party. In a nod to the Terminator, he also quipped ‘hasta la vista baby’, a catchphrase made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger – whose character was also known for saying ‘I’ll be back’. ‘The answer to that question is because Cummings believes he can control Rishi and sees a role for himself back in government, and that is quite terrifying.’ Dominic Cummings has claimed Boris Johnson is supporting ‘human hand grenade’ Liz Truss to be the next prime minister as he ‘thinks “she’ll blow and he can make a comeback’.

A Liz Truss meme has gone viral for a strange moment in an old speech where the potential PM in waiting made a promise about pork.

Truss’ pork remark is immediately followed by an ear-to-ear grin, accompanied by a deep stare down the camera lens. Truss was the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs under David Cameron’s government at the time. While Liz Truss is in the news more nowadays than in 2015 due to the leadership contest, this isn’t actually the first time the clip has gone viral.

The UK foreign secretary is now the hot favorite to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister.

"It was another example of the focus on messaging over substance." "I honestly think it's already over," one supportive MP said Wednesday. "She's no good at the hustings — we saw that last week — but it doesn't matter a jot. More colleagues rushed to Truss this week, he added, as it became clear she had a real shot at the top job. Both his Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries and Brexit Opportunities Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg rowed in behind her campaign and were unafraid to get personal with her rivals. A YouGov poll of Tory members this week suggested that in a run-off between Truss and Sunak, it would be the foreign secretary who comes out on top. “We think that debate crystallized in people’s minds that she was someone who could really take it to Rishi," an aide said. She was then widely judged to have performed disastrously in the first of two televised leadership debates, and has continued to poll poorly among the general public over which candidate would make the best prime minister. “It's all about who has the most friends," one supportive MP explained. Truss has pledged to cancel his planned 6p rise in corporation tax, and abolish a £12 billion increase in national insurance contributions. Similarly, Truss appears to have picked up crucial votes at the 11th hour from her right-wing rival Kemi Badenoch, who was eliminated Tuesday night. Truss had been slow to launch, stuck abroad in Indonesia on ministerial duty when the Johnson regime imploded earlier this month. She now finds herself the hot favorite to win the race for No. 10 Downing Street.

Liz Truss has links to secretively funded climate sceptic groups while Rishi Sunak opposed climate spending as finance minister.

According to research by the Overseas Development Institute, the UK under Sunak gave just $3.2 bn in Sunak’s first year as finance minister, half of its “fair share” towards the $100bn target. Sunak’s political career and climate record is shorter than Truss’s. He was elected to parliament in 2015 and plucked from obscurity to become Boris Johnson’s chancellor just as the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Domestically, Sunak’s spending cuts led to the cancellation of a badly run home insulation subsidy scheme in 2021. And as the UK’s high temperature record was shattered this week, with a provisional reading of 40.3C, a poll found 70% of voters understood that climate change was the driver. In an attempt to win Tory MPs’ votes today, Sunak announced he would not relax planning rules for onshore wind. A readout of the CEN hustings shared with Climate Home shows that Truss mainly focused on conserving nature. The rest were undecided. The figures for 2021 have yet to be released. This has generally hindered UK climate policies. In 2018, she criticised her own government’s attempts to control air pollution from wood-burning stoves. She boasted of bringing back beavers to the UK as environment secretary, promised to review the UK’s list of protected species and lead a delegation to the biodiversity Cop in Montreal. Despite this record, she has earned the support of the party’s most climate-aware ministers Zac Goldsmith. When Johnson resigned, the international environment minister tweeted that most of the leadership candidates “couldn’t give a shit about climate and nature” but has gone on to back Truss as “the obvious choice”.

As the final Tory leadership contenders battle for the support of Conservative members, Mr Sunak claimed he is the only one who can beat Labour.

“I will move to bring in an emergency budget to get on with doing this quickly, and announce a spending review to find more efficiencies in government spending.” “I am the tax-cutting candidate who will help squeezed families by reversing April’s national insurance rise and suspending the green levy on energy bills. “I’m confident that we can do that and we’ve got a really positive message to take out to all our members now – crucially, who is the best person to beat Keir Starmer and the Labour Party at the next election?” he said.

Liz Truss has undergone a political reinvention to become the favorite to succeed Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative party and UK Prime Minister.

The two candidates in the Conservative leadership race are setting out their pitches to the party members who will choose Boris Johnson's successor. · Rishi ...

Writing in the Daily Mail, Ms Truss said "the central issue at the next election is going to be the economy" and "we have been going in the wrong direction on tax". In the Daily Telegraph, Mr Sunak wrote that he believed in "hard work, family and integrity", adding: "I am running as a Thatcherite, and I will govern as a Thatcherite." Mr Sunak has previously said the tax burden needed to be reduced but not immediately, saying it was a matter of "when not if". She also pledged to bring in an emergency budget to get the changes through quickly and to announce a spending review to "find more efficiencies in government spending". Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Sunak said he would introduce "a set of reforms as radical as the ones Margaret Thatcher drove through in the 1980s". There were gasps at how close the election to make the final two was and a real awareness of the responsibility party members now carry, on behalf of the country.

TORY LEADERSHIP hopeful Liz Truss has been praised by Jacob Rees-Mogg for her 'loyalty' as he took a swipe at her rival Rishi Sunak.

Jacob Rees-Mogg says he supports Liz Truss to be the next leader of the Tory Party because she "stuck by the Prime Minister", and "wasn't setting up her own website to campaign against him." — The News Desk (@TheNewsDesk) @KateEMcCann The Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency said he was backing Ms Truss as she had “stuck by the Prime Minister” and was not “setting up her own website to campaign against him”, unlike the former Chancellor whose resignation helped turn the tide against Boris Johnson.