LONDON (AFP) --Britain’s new Conservative leader Liz Truss Monday vowed “bold” action to fix the country’s worst economic crisis in decades, as she was confirmed as Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s successor after a grueling party contest.
The foreign secretary resisted pressure for a politically perilous early election to confirm her new mandate, vowing instead to “deliver a great victory for the Conservative party in 2024”.
Truss beat her rival, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, by about 57 to 43 percent after a summer-long contest decided by just over 170,000 Conservative members -- a tiny sliver of Britain’s electorate.
Sunak -- who has been lukewarm about whether he would serve in Truss’s cabinet -- tweeted that now was the time for the party to unite as “one family”.
But Truss ignored her applauding rival as she marched up to the stage of the central London convention hall, calling it an “honor” to be elected after undergoing “one of the longest job interviews in history”.
Truss vowed a “bold plan” to address tax cuts and the energy crisis, which she has indicated will be financed by much higher borrowing -- even at the risk of stoking double-digit inflation.
Truss, 47, will be the UK’s third woman to become prime minister following Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher.
She will formally take office on Tuesday, after Johnson tenders his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II.
The leadership contest began in July after Johnson announced his departure following a slew of scandals and resignations from his government, including Sunak’s.
A YouGov poll in late August found 52 percent thought Truss would make a “poor” or “terrible” prime minister.
Forty-three percent said they did not trust her “at all” to deal with the crisis in the cost of living, as energy prices rocket amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Truss is also viewed with mistrust among some of Britain’s allies, after taking a hard line against the European Union over post-Brexit trading rules for Northern Ireland.
“I look forward to a constructive relationship, in full respect of our agreements,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said, flagging climate change and Ukraine as areas for cooperation.
Ireland’s government also gave Truss a wary welcome, but the scale of the challenges ahead saw the Smarkets betting exchange give her a 25 percent chance of failing to last through 2023.
The Tory winner faces “the worst in-tray for a new prime minister since Thatcher”, The Sunday Times wrote.
Millions say that with energy bills set to rise by 80 percent from October -- and even higher from January -- they face a painful choice between eating and heating this winter, according to surveys.
Polls show public support for an early general election, and the Conservatives face a growing challenge to retain their grip on power with the opposition Labour party riding high.
Labour leader Keir Starmer sent his own congratulations to Truss.
“But after 12 years of the Tories all we have to show for it is low wages, high prices, and a Tory cost-of-living crisis,” he tweeted.
“Only Labour can deliver the fresh start our country needs.”
On Tuesday morning, Johnson will deliver a farewell speech at Downing Street before flying to Scotland -- where heavy rain is forecast -- to hand his resignation to Queen Elizabeth.
For the first time in her 70-year reign, the 96-year-old monarch will appoint the prime minister at her Scottish retreat, Balmoral, rather than at Buckingham Palace in London.
Judging by her words as foreign secretary and on the Downing Street campaign trail, the new UK prime minister appears to be itching for a fight with Europe, Russia and China.
Truss’s bellicose tone towards friends and foes alike -- even French President Emmanuel Macron has not been immune -- has some in the UK security establishment worried.
Defense chiefs forced Truss to backtrack in February when, as foreign secretary, she gave her approval to any Britons wanting to head to Ukraine to fight against the Russian forces.
Truss says she would “double down” on his government’s support for Kyiv.
“We will keep going further and faster to push Russia out of the whole of Ukraine,” she said in a keynote speech in April, indicating that Moscow must also vacate Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.