Liz Truss wins Conservative party race, becomes next British PM

LONDON: British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has defeated former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership race and will now be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Forty-seven-year-old Liz Truss will become the third female prime minister of the UK.

She defeated Sunak through a postal ballot of all Conservative members.

The Tory leadership race was triggered after Boris Johnson was forced to step down on July 7 following a series of resignations of cabinet members, who protested against his scandal-plagued leadership.

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss rose to the Conservative ranks to end up as finalists for the contest for the post of UK Prime Minister.

During nearly a dozen hustings and after a six-week long head-to-head competition, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak had explained their long-term visions for Britain.

Both contenders went through bouts of 12 nationwide events with the first bout in Leeds, Northern England.

Truss indicated that she will strongly push back against "identity politics of the left" as she has envisioned the legislation for single-sex spaces such as domestic violence shelters.

Sunak batted for cutting VAT to revive the country's economic situation.

Liz Truss undertook a two-day trip to India in October last year.

During her visit, she underscored the importance of partnership with India.

Truss stressed that both countries should work together on the set plans for the future. The Roadmap 2030 for India-UK future relations was launched during a virtual summit between the two countries in May last year.

This Roadmap is for revitalised and dynamic connections between people, re-energised trade, investment and technological collaboration.

In another visit in March this year, Truss along with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had expressed satisfaction with the progress achieved so far concerning Roadmap 2030 and agreed to further intensify efforts to deliver results in priority areas of trade and investments, defence, and migration.

Both sides appreciated the substantial progress made in the India-UK FTA negotiations with two productive rounds completed since its launch in January 2022.