Liz Truss has beaten Rishi Sunak in the race for Conservative leadership, thus becoming our fourth Tory prime minister in the last 6 years after Boris Johnson was ousted from the position. As she sets out to mend the deeply fractured party that she has inherited, Truss must coordinate her government to immediately begin the process of tackling the ongoing cost of living crisis that will plague the UK into 2023.
Truss has claimed to have a bold plan that will seek to cut taxes and grow the economy through promises to reverse a national insurance rise and cut corporation tax. These plans are in keeping with her victory message, stating: “During this leadership campaign, I campaigned as a conservative and I will govern as a conservative. We need to show that we will deliver over the next two years.”
With plans for her premiership fully underway, Truss has shown no desire to call a snap election to delay any plans, stating that she will eventually “deliver a great victory for the Conservative party in 2024.”
Upon her meeting with the Queen at Balmoral, Truss has assembled her new cabinet with the approvement of notable names such as Kwasi Kwarteng becoming her Chancellor, accompanied by the appointments of Suella Braverman as home secretary and James Cleverly as foreign secretary. These appointments are noteworthy particularly being that, for the first time, there will be no white men in the four great offices of state. This comes as a major step in progressive representation standards within the UK, also seeing only the third female Prime Minister to have governed.
A notable exception from the new approved cabinet appointments is Truss’ electorate rival Rishi Sunak, telling the BBC that the cabinet was “not something I’m thinking about.” This breaks the tradition of unsuccessful leadership contenders being offered high profile posts.
The comprehensive list of approved appointments is as follows:
- The Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP as Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
- The Rt Hon Dr Thérèse Coffey MP as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. She will also be Deputy Prime Minister
- The Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP as Chancellor of the Exchequer
- The Rt Hon James Cleverly MP as Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
- The Rt Hon Suella Braverman QC MP as Secretary of State for the Home Department
- Wendy Morton MP as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Chief Whip). She will attend Cabinet
- The Rt Hon Ben Wallace MP has been re-appointed as Secretary of State for Defence
- The Rt Hon Brandon Lewis CBE MP as Lord Chancellor, and Secretary of State for Justice
- The Rt Hon Nadhim Zahawi MP as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Minister for Intergovernmental Relations, and Minister for Equalities
- The Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP as Lord President of the Council, and Leader of the House of Commons
- Lord True CBE as Lord Privy Seal, and Leader of the House of Lords
- The Rt Hon Jake Berry MP as Minister without Portfolio
- The Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP has been re-appointed as COP26 President
- The Rt Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg MP as Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy
- The Rt Hon Simon Clarke MP as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
- Kemi Badenoch MP as Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade
- Chloe Smith MP as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
- The Rt Hon Kit Malthouse MP as Secretary of State for Education
- Ranil Jayawardena MP as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
- The Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP as Secretary of State for Transport
- The Rt Hon Michelle Donelan MP as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport
- The Rt Hon Chris Heaton-Harris MP as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
- The Rt Hon Alister Jack MP has been re-appointed as Secretary of State for Scotland
- The Rt Hon Sir Robert Buckland KBE QC MP has been re-appointed as Secretary of State for Wales
- Chris Philp MP as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He will attend Cabinet
- Rt Hon Michael Ellis QC MP as Attorney General. He will attend Cabinet
- Edward Argar MP as Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office. He will attend Cabinet
- Vicky Ford MP as a Minister of State (Minister for Development) in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. She will attend Cabinet
- Tom Tugendhat MBE MP as a Minister of State (Minister for Security) in the Home Department. He will attend Cabinet
- James Heappey MP has been re-appointed as a Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence. He will be Minister for the Armed Forces and Veterans and will attend Cabinet.
- Graham Stuart MP as a Minister of State (Minister for Climate) in the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy. He will attend Cabinet.
