Liz Truss beat Rishi Sunak in the Tory game of thrones to become the new British PM — only the third woman to hold the post after original Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, and Theresa May. Truss, 47, is often dubbed by some fans as the 'New Iron Lady' as she appeared to emulate Margaret Thatcher in her first leadership battle. But, winter's coming, and time will soon tell if her tough-as-nails persona matches the challenges.

Mary Elizabeth Truss was born in Oxford on July 26, 1975, to John Kenneth Truss, a professor of mathematics at the University of Leeds, and Priscilla Mary, a nurse, teacher and member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

She moved to Scotland at the age of four. She studied politics, philosophy and economics at Merton College, Oxford, where she held the post of president of the Oxford University Liberal Democrats.

Also read: Liz Truss' first priority will be to keep the ship afloat over what will be a difficult winter, say experts

Rise uninterrupted

She joined the Conservative Party in 1996 as soon as she graduated. However, before taking the political plunge, she did a corporate stint, working as a commercial manager at Shell and economic director of Cable & Wireless.

Liz Truss becomes the 56th Prime Minister to serve United Kingdom#LizTruss #UK #PrimeMinister pic.twitter.com/rpCcYCNZR5

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) September 5, 2022

Truss married Hugh O’Leary in 2000. She first contested elections in 2010 as the Tory candidate for South West Norfolk and won. She has been holding the seat ever since.

Both her marriage and her political career survived an affair — often a fatal misstep in British politics — with Mark Field, an MP for the City of Westminster, when ex-PM David Cameron, her then boss, sprung to her defence.

Truss swiftly climbed the ministerial ladder after joining Parliament. She held various Cabinet positions under three prime ministers David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, impressing all with her fine balancing act.

Also read: Liz Truss becomes new UK PM — Twitter erupts with wishes, memes, reality checks

Global profile

She gained global brownie points when, as foreign minister in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet, she travelled to Moscow to meet her Kremlin counterpart Sergei Lavrov earlier this year, hoping to persuade Russia to pull back from the brink of the war with Ukraine.

After Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990) & Theresa May (2016–2019), Liz Truss becomes the 3rd woman elected as Prime Minister of the UK #LizTruss #UK #PrimeMinister pic.twitter.com/R6Oody7GcD

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) September 5, 2022

As the second female foreign secretary in history of Britain, her key achievements include securing the release of Iranian-British dual citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from detention in Iran and introducing a slew of sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

Truss and tax

Truss has vowed to bring about the biggest economic change that the UK has witnessed in 30 years. She has promised a radical overhaul of the taxation system, reversing the national insurance rate rise brought in by rival Rishi Sunak. She has also vowed to roll back the scheduled corporation tax hike from 19 percent to 25 percent.

Sunak had ridiculed her plans as ‘fairytale economics.’

India a ‘sweet spot’ for Truss

Liz Truss is known to champion deeper India-UK strategic and economic ties, calling it a “sweet spot” of global trade dynamics.

As international trade secretary, she had signed the India-UK Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP) for the Boris Johnson-led government in May, 2021, which marked the starting point of the ongoing free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Sept 5, 2022 9:17 PM IST