Britain’s former foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has won the ruling Conservative Party’s leadership contest,

London, September 5 (RHC)-- Britain’s former foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has won the ruling Conservative Party’s leadership contest, gaining the parliamentary majority to become the country’s next prime minister and replacing Boris Johnson, who was forced to resign after a series of scandals.

Truss was named the new prime minister by first MPs at the QEII Centre in Westminster on Monday, following a grueling eight-week leadership campaign.  The foreign secretary beat her rival, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, by 81,326 votes (%57.4) to 60,399 (%42.6), after a summer-long divisive battle sparked by Johnson's resignation in July.

Truss will be going to #10 Downing Street facing a myriad of domestic and foreign challenges, chief among them the conflict in Ukraine and a toxic economic situation recently made worse by soaring food and energy prices.

On the campaign trail, she had promised “immediate action” to help tackle an all-consuming cost-of-living crisis.

Soaring cost of gas and electricity is widely expected to be the main issue defining her first few months in office.  Her team says it has been working on a package to help struggling households, but details of the program have not been made public yet.

In her victory speech on Monday, Truss promised to “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,” she said.

Truss ended her short maiden speech as Tory leader by promising to win the next general election in 2024.  “We need to show that we will deliver over the next two years,” she told the audience. “We all will deliver for our country, and I will make sure that we use all the fantastic talents of the Conservative Party.”