Liz Truss

1975-

Mary Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Truss was born in Oxford on the 26 July 1975. She served as the Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022 and as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after winning the member’s vote, beating current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Her contributions to Norfolk come from her time as MP for South West Norfolk, a position she has held since 2010.

After fighting her way up the political ranks covering roles in think tanks, Conservative associations and councils, she began her journey as an MP in the mid 2000s. After David Cameron took the place of Conservative Party Leader in 2005, Truss was included in what was known as the party’s ‘A list’. This was a pool of potential Conservative Party candidates typically from minority backgrounds; half of the list were women.

In October 2009 she was chosen as MP for South West Norfolk after beating 5 other candidates, including the subsequent Deputy Prime Minister, Theresa Coffey. After 2 years of leading her constituency, she was named under-secretary of state for education, during this time Truss had plans blocked by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. These proposals would have increased the number of children that childminders would be allowed to care for. Truss alleged this would save parents money on childcare costs. After her stint in the education sector, during a cabinet shuffle in 2014, she was named Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. During her two years in the role she laid out a 10-year plan to tackle the falling bee population. She also was part of a team that developed a form of food crime unit which would attempt to oversee the resolution of incidents like the previous horse meat scandal. Towards the end of her time in this role, in 2016, she co-signed the Remain side during Brexit. The Brexit ordeal led to the resignation of David Cameron, resulting in Theresa May taking the role.

In 2016 Truss was made Secretary of State for justice and Lord Chancellor, becoming the first female Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom. However, after the general election of 2017, Truss was demoted to Chief Secretary of the Treasury, which was not a fully-fledged cabinet role. However, it wouldn’t be long until Truss would regain the confidence of Conservative Party members again. After May’s resignation, Truss concluded she shouldn’t stand for the election instead she was the first minister to endorse Boris Johnson for the role. Subsequently, under Boris Johnson’s government, Truss held the roles of Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade, she later was also minister for Women and Equalities. In September of 2021, Truss was promoted to Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs.

Amid these cabinet shuffles Truss maintained her role in Norfolk, defending local matters. For example, the dualling of the A11 and for the F35 Fighter Jets to be located at RAF Marham. She also developed her local presence speaking at local schools, for example, Thetford Academy where she shared her experience of applying to Oxbridge. Despite contributing to the local scene, Liz Truss’s biggest political achievement would come in 2022. After Boris Johnson’s reputation was defaced by the infamous ‘Party-Gate’, he resigned as leader of the Conservative Party leading to Truss standing for the role. After a short campaign, Truss won the party membership vote against Rishi Sunak by 57% to 43%. After years of climbing the political ranks, on the 6 September 2022, Truss was appointed the title of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Elizabeth II died just 2 days after the appointment. Truss did an adequate job of handling the passing of the Queen after publicly hailing the Queen for her efforts throughout her reign, however, Truss’s leadership seemingly went downhill. After going back and forth with Kwasi Kwarteng’s ‘mini-budget’ which as a result was blamed for the pound falling to its lowest ever rate against the US dollar, Truss began falling out of favour with the government. After 45 days of serving in office, Liz Truss announced her resignation as Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party. Despite her term being known as the shortest of any British Prime Minister she still maintains the achievement of being Britain’s third female PM.

In more recent times, she was re-elected as MP for South West Norfolk after standing again in February 2023 and continues to serve her constituents to this day.

Researched and written by Charlie Shirtcliffe