LONDON (AP) \u2014\u00a0Liz Truss\u00a0became U.K. prime minister on Tuesday and immediately confronted the enormous task ahead of her amid increasing pressure to curb soaring prices, ease labor unrest and fix a health care system burdened by long waiting lists and staff shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the top of her inbox is\u00a0the energy crisis triggered by Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, which threatens to push\u00a0energy bills\u00a0to unaffordable levels, shuttering businesses and leaving the nation\u2019s\u00a0poorest people\u00a0shivering in icy homes this winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Truss, who refused to spell out her energy strategy during the two-month campaign to succeed\u00a0Boris Johnson, now plans to cap energy bills at a cost to taxpayers of as much as 100 billion pounds ($116 billion), British news media reported Tuesday. She is expected to unveil her plan on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou must know about the cost of living crisis in England, which is really quite bad at the moment,\u201d said Rebecca Macdougal, 55, who works in law enforcement, outside the Houses of Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe\u2019s making promises for that, as she says she\u2019s going to deliver, deliver, deliver. But we will see in, hopefully, the next few weeks there\u2019ll be some announcements which will help the normal working person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Truss, 47, took office Tuesday afternoon at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, when Queen Elizabeth II formally asked her to form a new government in a\u00a0carefully choreographed ceremony\u00a0dictated by centuries of tradition. Johnson, who announced his intention to step down two months ago, formally resigned during his own audience with the queen a short time earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was the first time in the queen\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Truss became prime minister a day after the ruling Conservative Party chose her as its leader in an election where the party\u2019s 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 in the House of Commons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as a national leader selected by less than 0.5% of British adults, Truss is under pressure to show quick results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ed Davey, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, on Tuesday called for an early election in October \u2014 something that Truss and the Conservative Party are highly unlikely to do since the Tories are slumping in the polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve listened to Liz Truss during the Tory leadership (campaign) and I was looking for a plan to help people with their skyrocketing energy bills, with the NHS crisis and so on, and I heard no plan at all,\u201d he told the BBC. \u201cGiven people are really worried, given people are losing sleep over their energy bills, businesses aren\u2019t investing because of the crisis, I think that\u2019s really wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson took note of the strains facing Britain as he left the prime minister\u2019s official residence at No. 10 Downing Street for the last time, saying his policies had left the government with the economic strength to help people weather the energy crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Always colorful, he thinly disguised his bitterness at being forced out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am like one of those booster rockets that has fulfilled its function,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI will now be gently re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many observers expect Johnson to attempt a political comeback, though he was cyrptic about his plans. Instead, the man who studied classics at the University of Oxford backed Truss and compared himself to Cincinnatus, the Roman dictator who relinquished power and returned to his farm to live in peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLike Cincinnatus, I am returning to my plow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson, 58, became prime minister three years ago after his predecessor, Theresa May, failed to deliver Britain\u2019s departure from the European Union. Johnson later won an 80-seat majority in Parliament with the promise to \u201cget Brexit done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. That paved the way for Truss, a one-time accountant who was first elected to the House of Commons in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many people in Britain are still learning about their new leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She is expected to make her first speech as prime minister Tuesday afternoon outside No. 10 Downing Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u2014 triple the cost of a year ago \u2014 on Oct. 1 unless she intervenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rising food and energy prices, driven by\u00a0the invasion of Ukraine\u00a0and the aftershocks of COVID-19 and Brexit, have propelled\u00a0U.K. inflation above 10%\u00a0for 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Truss, a low-tax, small-government conservative who admires Margaret Thatcher, says her priority is cutting taxes and slashing regulations to fuel economic growth. Critics say that will fuel further inflation while failing to address the cost-of-living crisis. The uncertainty has rattled money markets, driving the pound below $1.14 on Monday, its weakest since the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In theory, Truss has time to make her mark: She doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to Britain\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Truss, as foreign secretary, was a firm supporter of Ukraine\u2019s resistance to Russia. She has said her first phone call with a world leader will be to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Truss has also pledged to increase U.K. defense spending to 3% of gross domestic product from just over 2% \u2014 another expensive promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But she\u2019s likely to have much cooler conversations with EU leaders, who were annoyed by her uncompromising stance as foreign secretary in talks over trade rules for Northern Ireland, an unresolved Brexit issue that has soured relations between London and Brussels. With the U.K. threatening to breach the legally binding divorce treaty, and the EU launching legal action in response, the dispute could escalate into a trade war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think she\u2019s got a big, challenging job ahead of her,\u2033 Robert Conway, 71, an electronics manufacturer, said in London. \u201cHopefully she\u2019ll bring that, a new team, a new start, but it\u2019s going to be a challenging job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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