British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has beaten former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, winning the ruling Conservative Party’s leadership contest.

Truss, 47, will meet Queen Elizabeth II for the “kissing of hands” ceremony with the monarch on Tuesday. After being formally asked by the Queen to form a government, Truss is to become Britain’s third female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May. Notably, all female prime ministers so far have been Conservative.

Truss has also worked for three former prime ministers. She was promoted by David Cameron to environment secretary and worked as justice secretary under Theresa May. She was eventually made foreign secretary by Boris Johnson in 2021.

An Oxford graduate, Truss had worked for 10 years in the energy and telecommunications sectors before entering politics.

Truss, who was elected as a Conservative member of parliament in 2010, has served in various government departments since 2012, including international trade secretary and minister for women and equalities. In September 2021, she became foreign secretary. Truss is married with two children.

Liz Truss is the Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk and Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs. Liz has also been appointed Minister for Women and Equalities.

Born in Leeds to left-wing parents, Liz broke the mould and started her career as an economist and accountant with a Conservative membership card. She was elected as a councillor in Greenwich in 2006, and then as MP for South West Norfolk in 2010. She was one of the first MPs of her intake to enter Government in 2012.

She went viral after a speech she made about cheese. Before she entered the leadership contest, many knew her from a speech at the Tory Party Conference in 2014 where she enthusiastically promoted British cheese and pork.

Since then she has been an Education Minister, Secretary of State for the Environment (proudly championing the virtues of British cheese), Justice Secretary, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade, as well as Minister for Women and Equalities.

A staunch defender of South West Norfolk’s interests, she has fought many successful campaigns for the area, including the dualling of the A11, the F35 fighter jets to be based at RAF Marham and for better rural broadband.

Liz is passionate about giving every child basic maths and science skills, and recently provided funding for more maths teachers, a premium for schools whose students study maths, and the extension of the Maths Schools programme.

Liz is not afraid to speak her mind and believes liberating people to start and grow businesses without burdensome red tape is the key to our economic future. She has argued strongly against the Big State policies of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, which she believes will damage choice, innovation and prosperity.

As Chief Secretary, Liz was tasked with keeping a watchful eye on the public finances and driving productivity in public services, so taxpayers get the most for every pound spent. She travelled to Japan, South Korea, Brazil and Chile to see how countries around the globe are turbocharging economic growth, controlling public finances and delivering world-class public services.

In July 2019, Liz became Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade. As International Trade Secretary, Liz was charged with securing new trade deals and partnerships across the world. As Minister for Women and Equalities, Liz is responsible for cross-government equality strategy and legislation.

In September 2021 Liz was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs.

She’s pledged to “start cutting taxes from day one”. This includes scrapping the National Insurance increase that came into force in April and suspending green taxes from energy bills to help people cope with increasing costs.

Truss voted Remain in the Brexit referendum, but after the result, she changed her mind and declared Brexit an opportunity for the UK. She was popular amongst Brexit-supporting Conservatives in the leadership election.