Truss: we can ride the storm together

“I am confident that, together, we can ride out the storm and rebuild our economy to become the modern, brilliant Britain I know we can be,” declared Liz Truss this afternoon in her first address to the nation from her new Downing Street home.

Truss has now taken the reins of power from Boris Johnson, after being formally appointed as Britain’s 56th Prime Minister by the Queen at Balmoral Castle at lunchtime, before swiftly return to Westminster. 

The incoming PM opened her speech by paying tribute to her predecessor: ”History will see him as a hugely consequential prime minister,” she insisted. 

She acknowledged that she is taking office at a troubling time – “We now face the global headwinds caused by the war in Ukraine and Covid” – but added, “I am determined to deliver.”

Truss reeled off a list of her priorities, including a “bold plan” to grow the economy through tax cuts, measures to “put our health service on a firm footing”, to ensure Brits can secure doctors’ appointments, and, last but certainly not least, she pledged to “deal hands on with the energy crisis.” 

Her first task will be finalising her cabinet, and then tomorrow she is due to announce the details of a mega- support package to address Britain’s spiralling energy costs. It is understood that the emergency package will involve freezing energy costs for all households and could cost up to £100 billion.  

So far, we know that Kwasi Kwarteng is be the new chancellor, James Cleverley the new foreign secretary, and Suella Braverman the new home secretary. Jacob Rees-Mogg Is expected to take up a role as business secretary role, while Therese Coffey, another of Truss’s close allies, has been appointed health secretary and Deputy PM.

Another top ally, Iain Duncan Smith, has said he was offered a cabinet role but has turned it down while culture secretary and ultra Boris loyalist, Nadine Dorries, has resigned her post. Kemi Badenoch, one of the early leadership contenders, is tipped to take on the post as secretary of state at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. 

This is the 15th time the Queen has sworn in a new Prime Minister – with Winston Churchill being in office when she first ascended the throne. It was, however, the first time that the formality has taken place at Balmoral rather than Buckingham Palace, owing to her reduced mobility.

Before his own meeting with the Queen today, Boris Johnson made his final farewell speech on the steps of Number 10 early this morning, encouraging MPs, the party and the public to support Truss who, he said, has the right plan to “unite our party.” He jokingly calmed fears that he will be a troublesome presence for the next government by comparing himself to “a booster rocket” that has “fulfilled its function”, and can now settle down “invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific.” We’ll believe it when we see it.