Liz Truss has officially been appointed as the new Prime Minister of U.K. today, by Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle, Scotland
Liz Truss has officially been appointed as the new Prime Minister of United Kingdom (U.K.) today, i.e., Tuesday, September 6, 2022, by Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle, Scotland.
A Statement from Buckingham Palace read, “The Queen received in Audience The Right Honourable Elizabeth Truss MP today and requested her to form a new Administration. Ms Truss accepted Her Majesty’s offer and kissed hands upon her appointment as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.”
The ceremony where the monarch rubber-stamps the appointment of a new minister is sometimes referred to as “kissing hands.”
Liz is the 3rd female Prime Minister in the history of U.K. She will address the country from Downing Street before appointing her Government. Boris Johnson urged the country and his warring party to unite behind the new leader.
Before leaving 10 Downing Street, Johnson said, “I am like one of those booster rockets that has fulfilled its function. I will now be gently re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific.”
Truss inherits an economy in crisis, with inflation at double digits, the cost of energy soaring and the Bank of England warning of a lengthy recession by the end of this year. She will also be tested the way she handles ties European Union (E.U.) and Russia.
Her plan to revive growth through tax cuts while also potentially providing around £ 100 billion (U.S. $ 116 billion) for energy has rattled financial markets, prompting investors to dump the pound and government bonds in recent weeks. Household energy bills are due to jump by 80% in October 2022. It is not clear how Britain will pay for the support, but it is likely to increase Government borrowing. The scale of the package, plus the fact the energy crisis could run for a couple of years, has spooked investors.
Under the plans being worked on by the Treasury, the U.K. Government would subsidise the wholesale cost of gas, allowing suppliers to cap the price of energy to households and businesses, leaving taxpayers exposed to any further surges in energy markets. The package would provide protection from the biggest energy shock for decades, preventing mass corporate casualties and keeping millions of households out of fuel poverty.
Capping gas prices would lower wholesale electricity rates. About 40% of Britain’s electricity is generated by gas-fired power plants, which tend to set wholesale rates for the rest of the market, even though other technologies such as wind produce power more cheaply.
Britain, under Conservative rule since 2010, has stumbled from crisis to crisis in recent years and there is now the prospect of a long energy emergency that could drain the savings of households and threaten the futures of businesses still weighed down by Coronavirus (COVID-19) era loans.
