Liz Truss became U.K. prime minister on Tuesday and immediately faced up to the enormous tasks ahead of her: curbing soaring prices, boosting the economy, easing labor unrest and fixing a national health care system burdened by long waiting lists and staff shortages. Truss quickly began appointing senior members of her Cabinet as she tackles an inbox dominated by the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which threatens to push energy bills to unaffordable levels, shuttering businesses and leaving the nation’s poorest people shivering at home this winter. Truss — Britain’s third female prime minister — named a top team diverse in gender and ethnicity, but loyal to her and her free-market politics. Kwasi Kwarteng becomes the first Black U.K. Treasury chief, and Therese Coffey its first female deputy prime minister. Other appointments include James Cleverly as foreign secretary and Suella Braverman as home secretary, responsible for immigration and law and order. Making her debut speech outside her new Downing Street home in a break between torrential downpours, Truss said she would cut taxes to spur economic growth, bolster the National Health Service and “deal hands on” with the energy crisis, though she offered few details about how she would implement those policies. She is expected to unveil her energy plans on Thursday. British news media reported that Truss plans to cap energy bills. The cost to taxpayers of that step could reach 100 billion pounds ($116 billion). “We shouldn’t be daunted by the challenges we face,” Truss said in her first speech as prime minister. “As strong as the storm may be, I know the British people are stronger.” Read: Liz Truss: UK's incoming PM who models herself on Iron Lady Thatcher Truss, 47, took office earlier in the day at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, when Queen Elizabeth II formally asked her to form a new government in a ceremony dictated by centuries of tradition. Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson formally resigned during his own audience with the queen a short time earlier, two months after he had announced his intention to step down. It was the first time in the queen’s 70-year reign that the handover of power took place at Balmoral, rather than Buckingham Palace in London. The ceremony was moved to Scotland to provide certainty about the schedule, because the 96-year-old queen has experienced problems getting around that have forced palace officials to make decisions about her travel on a day-to-day basis. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy received a call from Truss on her first day. She spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden, too. Ze;emslyy wrote on Twitter: “I was the first among foreign leaders to have a conversation with the newly elected British Prime Minister, Liz Truss. I invited her to Ukraine. I thanked the people of Britain for their leadership in the military and economic support of Ukraine.” Biden, who worked closely with Johnson in confronting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was quick to congratulate Truss. “I look forward to deepening the special relationship between our countries and working in close cooperation on global challenges, including continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression,” he said on Twitter. Truss’ office said she and Biden discussed the Ukraine war and defense cooperation, as well as economic issues and maintaining the British-Irish Good Friday Agreement. The leaders were expected to meet in person soon — likely around this month’s U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York. Truss became prime minister a day after the ruling Conservative Party chose her as its leader in an election where the party’s 172,000 dues-paying members were the only voters. As party leader, Truss automatically became prime minister without the need for a general election because the Conservatives still have a majority of lawmakers in the House of Commons. But as a national leader selected by less than 0.5% of British adults, Truss is under pressure to show quick results. Ed Davey, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, on Tuesday called for an early election in October — something that Truss and the Conservative Party are highly unlikely to do since the Tories are slumping in the polls. Johnson, 58, became prime minister three years ago after his predecessor, Theresa May, failed to deliver Britain’s departure from the European Union. Johnson later won an 80-seat majority in Parliament with the promise to “get Brexit done.” But he was forced out of office by a series of scandals that culminated in the resignation of dozens of Cabinet secretaries and lower-level officials in early July. Read: Ukraine says 4 civilians killed, 7 wounded by Russian shells Always colorful, Johnson said he was “like one of those booster rockets that has fulfilled its function.” “I will now be gently re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific,” he said. Many people in Britain are still learning about their new leader, a one-time accountant who entered Parliament in 2010. Unlike Johnson, who made himself a media celebrity long before he became prime minister, Truss rose quietly through the Conservative ranks before she was named foreign secretary, one of the top Cabinet posts, just a year ago. Truss is under pressure to spell out how she plans to help consumers pay household energy bills that are set to rise to an average of 3,500 pounds ($4,000) a year — triple the cost of a year ago — on Oct. 1 unless she intervenes. Rising food and energy prices, driven by the invasion of Ukraine and the aftershocks of COVID-19 and Brexit, have propelled U.K. inflation above 10% for the first time in four decades. The Bank of England forecasts it will hit 13.3% in October, and that the U.K. will slip into a prolonged recession by the end of the year. Train drivers, port staff, garbage collectors, postal workers and lawyers have all staged strikes to demand that pay increases keep pace with inflation, and millions more, from teachers to nurses, could walk out in the next few months. In theory, Truss has time to make her mark: She doesn’t have to call a national election until late 2024. But opinion polls already give the main opposition Labour Party a steady lead, and the worse the economy gets, the more pressure will grow. In addition to Britain’s domestic woes, Truss and her new Cabinet will also face multiple foreign policy crises, including the war in Ukraine and frosty post-Brexit relations with the EU. Truss, as foreign secretary, was a firm supporter of Ukraine’s resistance to Russia. Truss has also pledged to increase U.K. defense spending to 3% of gross domestic product from just over 2% — another expensive promise. Rebecca Macdougal, 55, who works in law enforcement, said outside the Houses of Parliament that time will tell whether Truss can turn things round. “She’s making promises for that, as she says she’s going to deliver, deliver, deliver,” Macdougal noted. “But we will see in, hopefully, the next few weeks there’ll be some announcements which will help the normal working person.”

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday congratulated the newly elected Conservative Party leader, Elizabeth Truss, who is set to be the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Hasina, now on a four-day visit in India, said: ‘Your appointment is a testimony to the trust and confidence of the British people in your leadership to take your country to newer heights of progress and prosperity.’ She reiterated that Bangladesh and the UK enjoy historic relations deeply rooted in “our shared values of democracy, secularism, and tolerance.” She expressed great satisfaction that the robust cooperation in trade, investment, and sustainable development between Dhaka and London will further grow over time. Also read: Liz Truss new leader of Conservative Party, set to be UK PM "On top of everything, the more vibrant Bangladesh-British Diaspora in the UK serves as the common treasure for developing the two countries,” Hasina said in her message. She said that 2022 is the most significant year as Bangladesh and the UK, two Commonwealth nations celebrate 50 years of their friendship. Hasina said she looks forward to working closely with Elizabeth Truss to further strengthen long-standing political, economic and strategic partnerships. Also read: Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss to be named as UK's new prime minister

Liz Truss has been elected as the Conservative Party's new leader, the party announced Monday, and she will take office Tuesday as Britain's new prime minister to steer the country through an acute cost-of-living crisis. The 47-year-old Truss, who is currently foreign secretary, beat former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak after a leadership contest in which only about 170,000 dues-paying members of the Conservative Party were allowed to vote. Truss received 81,326 votes, compared with Sunak’s 60,399. She faces immediate pressure to deliver on her promises to tackle the cost-of-living crisis walloping the U.K. and an economy heading into a potentially lengthy recession. Queen Elizabeth II is scheduled to formally appoint Truss as Britain’s prime minister on Tuesday. The ceremony will take place at the queen’s Balmoral estate in Scotland, where the monarch is spending her summer, rather than Buckingham Palace in London. Read: Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss to be named as UK's new prime minister The two-month leadership contest left Britain with a power vacuum at a time of growing discontent across the country amid spiraling energy and food costs. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made no major policy decisions since he announced he was stepping down on July 7, and officials insisted that measures to address the energy cost crisis would be deferred until his successor is in place. Meanwhile tens of thousands of workers have gone on strike to demand better pay to keep up with relentlessly rising costs. Inflation is above 10% for the first time since the 1980s, and the Bank of England has forecast that will reach a 42-year high of 13.3% in October. That’s largely driven by soaring energy bills, which will jump 80% for the average household starting next month. “I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy. I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long term issues we have on energy supply," Truss told party members after she was elected. “I know that our beliefs resonate with the British people: Our beliefs in freedom, in the ability to control your own life, in low taxes, in personal responsibility," she added. “I know that’s why people voted for us in such numbers in 2019 and as your party leader I intend to deliver what we promised those voters right across our great country.” Truss has won the support of many Conservatives with her zeal in rolling back state intervention and slashing taxes. Both she and her rival Sunak have spoken of their admiration for Margaret Thatcher, who was prime minister from 1979 to 1990, and her free-market, small-government economics. But it's not clear how Truss’s right-wing brand of conservatism, which played so well with party members — who represent far less than 1% of the U.K.'s adult population — will go down with the wider British public, especially those most in need of government relief to afford essentials like heating their homes this winter. Truss has promised to act “immediately” to tackle soaring energy bills, but declined to give any details so far. “The Conservative Party members wanted that message of tax cutting. The country, I would guess, less so,” said Bronwen Maddox, director of London's Chatham House think tank. “At the moment you’ve got people deeply rattled, many very, very afraid going into a year where all they can see are rising costs," Maddox added. "Until she’s got an answer on that, she doesn’t have a claim to the popularity of the country, I think. While the economy is certain to dominate the first months of the new premier’s term, Truss will also have to steer the U.K. on the international stage in the face of Russia’s war in Ukraine, an increasingly assertive China and ongoing tensions with the European Union over the aftermath of Brexit — especially in Northern Ireland. Truss will be the U.K.’s fourth Conservative prime minister in six years, entering Downing Street following Johnson, Theresa May and David Cameron. Johnson was forced to resign after a series of ethics scandals that peaked in July, when dozens of cabinet ministers and lower-level officials quit in protest over his handling of allegations of sexual misconduct by a senior member of his government. Both Truss and Sunak were key players within Johnson’s Cabinet, though Sunak resigned in the last days of Johnson’s time in office. A Truss government may not sit well with many because it reminds voters too much of Johnson’s misdeeds, said Steven Fielding, a professor of political history at Nottingham University. “She’s basically been elected as Boris Johnson 2.0 by Conservative members — she’s made it very clear that she is a loyal Boris Johnson supporter,” he said. “I think she’s going to find it very difficult to disentangle herself from the whole Johnson shadow.” Truss and Sunak were the final two candidates whittled down from an initial field of 11 leadership hopefuls. Under Britain’s parliamentary system of government, the center-right Conservative Party was allowed to hold an internal election to select a new party leader and prime minister without going to the wider electorate. A new general election isn’t required until December 2024.