Liz Truss served as prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and leader of the Conservative Party from 6 September to 25 October 2022.

Truss’ tenure in office was exceptionally brief and tumultuous. After the delivery of her disastrous “mini budget”, which sparked significant financial instability, and the losses of her chancellor and home secretary in the space of a week, Truss resigned as prime minister.

In doing so, Truss became the shortest-serving prime minister in British history, lasting just 49 days in office (excluding the brief caretaker period before her successor took over). The previous record was held by George Canning, who died in office after 119 days in 1827.

Truss served as the Conservative MP for South West Norfolk from 2010 until 2024. Before becoming prime minister, she was one of the longest-serving cabinet ministers of the modern era, having sat continuously in the cabinets of David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson between 2014 and 2022. Her final cabinet role before becoming prime minister was foreign secretary (September 2021 – September 2022). She was only the second woman to hold the post (after Labour’s Margaret Beckett).

Truss was also the last prime minister appointed by Queen Elizabeth II and the first to serve under King Charles III.

Truss lost her seat at the 2024 general election. The Labour candidate, Terry Jermy, won the seat with 11,847 votes (26.7%), while Truss polled 11,217 votes (25.3%). She became the first former prime minister to lose their seat in a general election since 1935.

Liz Truss’ premiership: leadership election and death of the Queen

Truss was appointed as prime minister on 6 September 2022, succeeding Boris Johnson. her appointment  followed her victory in the July-September 2022 Conservative Party leadership contest, where she defeated the former chancellor, Rishi Sunak. Truss secured 81,326 votes (57.4%) from the party membership, compared with Sunak’s 60,399 (42.6%).

The contest was triggered by Johnson’s resignation as Conservative leader and prime minister. Johnson finally succumbed to an unprecedented governmental collapse on 7 July 2022. In just 48 hours, over 60 ministers, parliamentary private secretaries, and aides resigned. Truss was not part of the ministerial exodus; however, she later issued a statement calling Johnson’s departure “the right decision” and for “calmness and unity”. Sunak’s resignation as chancellor, meanwhile, was one of the triggers of the mass revolt that eventually forced Johnson from office. Truss was widely seen to have benefitted from a “stop Rishi” campaign, which was encouraged by Johnson’s allies.

During the contest, Truss and Sunak clashed repeatedly over her proposed economic programme – termed ‘Trussonomics’. The serving foreign secretary also responded that the “jury’s out” when asked whether Emmanuel Macron, the French president, was a “friend or foe”.

In her first speech outside 10 Downing Street, Truss pledged to deliver a “bold” economic agenda. She paid tribute to Johnson, her predecessor, for having “delivered Brexit, the Covid vaccine, and stood up to Russian aggression.”

She stated: “We will transform Britain into an aspiration nation… with high-paying jobs, safe streets and where everyone everywhere has the opportunities they deserve. I will take action this day, and action every day, to make it happen…

“I am confident that together we can: ride out the storm, we can rebuild our economy, and we can become the modern brilliant Britain that I know we can be.”

Truss then went about selecting her cabinet, which she saturated with allies. Kwasi Kwarteng was appointed as chancellor, Thérèse Coffey as deputy prime minister, Jake Berry as Conservative chairman, Jacob Rees-Mogg as business secretary and Simon Clarke as levelling up secretary. Then, in one of her first moves as prime minister, Truss sacked the Treasury’s most senior civil servant, Tom Scholar. Truss had repeatedly railed against what she called “Treasury orthodoxy” during the July-September Conservative leadership election. Sacking Scholar, the long-serving public servant, was a symbolic statement of intent.

Shortly after Scholar’s sacking, Westminster was convulsed with news emanating from Balmoral. Upon Elizabeth’s death, Truss delivered a statement on the steps of Downing Street. “Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built”, she said.

“Our country has grown and flourished under her reign. Britain is the great country it is today because of her… Through thick and thin, Queen Elizabeth II provided us with the stability and the strength that we needed. She was the very spirit of Great Britain, and that spirit will endure.”

The Queen’s death, at the age of 96, suspended politics for the following fortnight.

Liz Truss’ premiership: the ‘mini-budget’

Truss’ premiership was defined by the mini-budget delivered by her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, on 23 September 2022.

The fiscal package, officially called the Growth Plan, announced £45 billion of unfunded tax cuts, including the abolition of the 45p top rate of income tax, all without an accompanying independent forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

The mini-budget followed the announcement of a new “energy price guarantee”. Under the plan, the government would pay a subsidy to energy and gas suppliers in order to limit typical household energy costs to £2,500 per year. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimated its cost at over £100 billion per year.

Almost immediately, the 23 September package provoked a market meltdown. The value of sterling fell sharply, and the cost of government borrowing (gilt yields) soared. The Bank of England was forced to launch an emergency intervention to buy government bonds and stabilise the market.

Truss’ political authority collapsed in tandem with the Conservative Party’s economic credibility. She was forced to sack Kwarteng on 14 October and appoint Jeremy Hunt as chancellor, who proceeded to reverse almost all of the mini-budget’s policies.

A further farce, a botched whipping operation over an ‘opposition day’ fracking vote, finally felled Truss as prime minister. On 19 October, the Labour Party triggered a debate on fracking in order to drive a wedge between the government and more “green” Conservative MPs. The Truss government, despite having been elected on a manifesto commitment to maintain the fracking moratorium, lifted it upon entering office. The Labour motion effectively forced Conservative MPs to either back fracking or rebel against their government.

In response, the government whips’ office, led by Wendy Morton as chief whip, attempted to maximise pressure on backbench MPs to prevent any rebellion. Senior government figures briefed that the vote was being treated as a vote of confidence in the prime minister. Under such terms, any Conservative MP who abstained or voted with Labour would likely face expulsion from the parliamentary party.

This strategy led to chaos on the floor of the commons. Shortly before the vote, the climate minister, Graham Stuart, announced that “quite clearly, this is not a confidence vote”. The calculated intervention directly contradicted the instruction delivered by the whips, causing widespread confusion. This was followed by angry scenes in the voting lobbies. One Labour MP, Chris Bryant, alleged that he saw Tory MPs being “physically manhandled” into the government voting lobby.

The government defeated the Labour motion by 326 votes to 230. However, in the immediate aftermath, both Morton, and her deputy, Craig Whittaker, were widely reported to have resigned. They were then reported to have un-resigned, following conversations with and pressure from Downing Street.

Veteran Conservative backbencher Charles Walker famously voiced his anger at the perceived incompetence of the government.

He told BBC News: “I’m livid and I really shouldn’t say this but all those people that put Liz Truss in No 10, I hope it was worth it, it was worth it for the ministerial red box, as it was worth it to sit round the cabinet table, because the damage they have done to our party is extraordinary.”

Truss subsequently announced her resignation on 20 October.

The Truss premiership was widely ridiculed, most notably by a Daily Star livestream which charted whether she would outlast a bewigged leaf vegetable.

The lettuce, famously, prevailed.

Truss’ downfall was quickly followed by a second Conservative leadership contest. Johnson initially expressed interest in standing as a candidate, but proved unable to secure the necessary support.

Rishi Sunak, having won the argument over Trussonomics, was appointed prime minister on 25 October.

Following her premiership, Truss remained MP for South West Norfolk until the 2024 election. She became an active commentator, particularly advocating for the free-market economic policies she pursued in office. She launched the ‘Popular Conservatism’ (PopCon) movement in February 2024.

In April 2024, she published a book, Ten Years to Save the West – part memoir and part political treatise – defending her economic policies and criticising what she termed the “anti-growth establishment”.

Truss blamed her defenestration on the political and economic establishment.

Political career before premiership (2010-2022)

Truss stood for parliament unsuccessfully in the 2001 (Hemsworth) and 2005 (Calder Valley) general elections.

In the 2005 to 2010 parliament, Truss was added to the Tory “A-List” of prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs), drawn up by Conservative Central Office at the behest of then-party leader David Cameron. The A-List was a centrally-approved priority list of around 100-150 PPCs created as part of Cameron’s bid to modernise the party’s image. The primary goal was to increase the diversity of Conservative MPs by fast-tracking more women and candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds into safe and winnable seats.

Truss was elected as the MP for the safe Conservative seat of South West Norfolk in the 2010 general election, securing a majority of 13,140.

Truss’ political assent during David Cameron’s tenure as prime minister (2010-2016) was remarkably quick.

In 2011, Truss founded the Free Enterprise Group (FEG) of Conservative MPs – a parliamentary caucus that championed free-market, libertarian economic policies. The group, seen as a standard-bearer for the Thatcherite wing of the party, is most notable for the political ascent of its founding members. Key figures in the FEG included Truss, Kwarteng, Priti Patel, Dominic Raab and Chris Skidmore. The 2012 book, Britannia Unchained, served as the group’s unofficial manifesto for radical free-market reform. The book argued for significant economic liberalisation and supply-side reforms.

In September 2012, Truss was appointed parliamentary under-secretary of state for education and childcare.

In the 2014 cabinet reshuffle, Truss was appointed to her first cabinet role as secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs. In her first appearance at Conservative conference as a cabinet minister, Truss delivered a memorable and widely satirised address. The speech, intended as a robust defence of British food producers, became famous for its emphatic focus on imports of cheese and fruit.

She declared: “As well as exporting our fantastic food abroad, I want to see more British food here in Britain.

“At the moment we import two-thirds of our apples. We import nine-tenths of all of our pears. We import two-thirds of our cheese.”

After a deliberate and prolonged pause, Truss added: “That. Is. A. Dis. Grace!”

In the wake of the 2016 Brexit referendum and Theresa May’s appointment as prime minister, Truss was retained in the cabinet as justice secretary. In this capacity, she became the first woman to hold the symbolic office of lord chancellor.

In 2017, Truss was appointed as chief secretary to the Treasury.

When Boris Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, Truss was appointed secretary of state for international trade and president of the board of trade. In this role, she was responsible for negotiating post-Brexit trade deals with countries around the world. She also took on the role of minister for women and equalities in September 2019.

Truss was promoted to one of the great offices of state in September 2021, becoming foreign, Commonwealth and development secretary under Boris Johnson. As foreign secretary, she took a hard line against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and led efforts to impose sanctions.

In June 2022, Truss publicly declared their loyalty to the prime minister, Boris Johnson, ahead of a Conservative “no-confidence” in his leadership. The vote was triggered by discontent within the parliamentary party following the “partygate” scandal and the publication of the Sue Gray report. While the prime minister ultimately won the vote, the scale of the rebellion against him, with 148 of his own MPs voting to remove him, severely weakened his authority and presaged his resignation the following month.

What is Liz Truss doing now?

Since losing her parliamentary seat in July 2024, Truss has remained highly active in political commentary.

Truss continues to promote her free-market ideology through international speaking engagements (particularly at conservative events in the US and elsewhere), and media appearances. She published her memoir, Ten Years to Save the West, in 2024.

In December 2025, Truss launched The Liz Truss Show which billed itself as “the home of the counter-revolution”. The show was launch on X (formerly Twitter).

Political Views

Truss is identified with the libertarian and free-market wing of the Conservative Party.

Leadership elections

Tory leadership 2019: Truss supported Boris Johnson for the party’s leadership in 2019. The election was triggered by the resignation of Theresa May following her inability to secure a Brexit deal acceptable to the Conservative Party.

Johnson, the former foreign secretary and mayor of London, campaigned on the central pledge to “deliver Brexit” by 31 October 2019, “deal or no deal”. He thereby positioned himself as the candidate best-placed to break the parliamentary deadlock. Johnson secured 114 votes in the first parliamentary ballot, and reached 160 votes in the final MP round. In the subsequent ballot of the party membership, Johnson won a decisive victory with 92,153 votes (66.4%).

Tory leadership 2016: Truss supported Johnson’s potential candidacy for the party’s leadership in June 2016. The contest was triggered by the resignation of David Cameron following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.

Johnson, the former mayor of London and a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign, was widely regarded as the frontrunner to succeed Cameron. However, his campaign was upended when Gove unexpectedly withdrew his support and announced his own leadership bid. Johnson announced on 30 June that he would not enter the race, leaving his supporters to shift their allegiances.

Truss went on to support Theresa May’s candidacy. May, the then-home secretary, secured a commanding lead in the parliamentary stages, receiving 165 votes in the first ballot and 199 in the second. Following the withdrawal of her final rival, Andrea Leadsom, on 11 July, May was declared leader unopposed and was appointed prime minister two days later.

Factional identity and party tradition

The Free Market Forum: Truss has been listed as a supporter of the Free Market Forum (FMF) of Conservative MPs and peers. The group, co-chaired by Dehenna Davison and Greg Smith in the 2019-2024 parliament, set out to “encourage free market thinking, winning over the unpersuaded and providing intellectual firepower and a public platform to proponents of classical liberalism.” Founded in 2021, the forum, associated with the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), was seen as aligned with the economic policies of the Liz Truss government.

Tax pledge Tories: In November 2023, Truss signed the “tax pledge” – which committed supportive MPs to not vote for any further increases in the overall tax burden. The initiative was associated with the Conservative Growth Group (CSG), a faction within the party that advocated for lower taxes and supply-side reforms to stimulate economic growth. The group was formed by allies of Truss. The “tax pledge” was spearheaded by Jake Berry, who served as Conservative chair in Truss’ short-lived government.

Rwanda rebellion (amendments): In January 2024, Truss was one of around 60 Conservative MPs who supported amendments to the government’s Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill. The amendments, proposed by Conservative MPs Sir Bill Cash and Robert Jenrick, sought to strengthen the proposed legislation by limiting the ability of individual asylum seekers to prevent their deportation to Rwanda, under the terms of the government’s flagship removals scheme. The rebellion was composed of Tory MPs on the right of the party.

Brexit and Europe

Brexit referendum: Truss supported Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and therefore disagreed with a majority of her constituents, 66.7% of whom voted to Leave.

Truss later became a prominent supporter of Brexit, arguing that initial economic fears had not materialised. During the July-September 2022 Conservative leadership contest, Jacob Rees-Mogg described Truss “as good a Brexiteer as I am”.

He added: “Liz Truss is the best candidate. She is a proper eurosceptic who will deliver for the voters and she believes in low taxation.”

Article 50: In February 2017, Truss voted in favour of the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill. The legislation empowered the prime minister to notify the Council of the European Union of the UK’s intention to withdraw, formally triggering the process set out in Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. MPs supported the bill by 498 votes to 114 at second reading.

Social values and conscience issues

Same-sex marriage (2013): In February 2013, Truss was one of the 131 Conservative MPs to vote in favour of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill at its second reading. The landmark piece of legislation, which received its second reading by 400 votes to 175, legalised marriage for same-sex couples in England and Wales.

Foreign policy and security

Trident renewal (2016): Truss voted in favour of a government motion calling for the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent system in July 2016. The motion, which was passed by 472 votes to 117, committed the UK to constructing a new fleet of submarines to carry the nation’s nuclear weapons.

Syria airstrikes (2015): Truss voted in favour of a government motion to extend UK airstrikes against Isis from Iraq into Syria in December 2015. The motion, which was passed by 397 votes to 223 after a 10-hour debate in the House of Commons, authorised the RAF to conduct strikes against Isis targets in Syria.

Syria airstrikes (2013): Truss voted in favour of the government’s motion on the principle of military intervention in Syria in August 2013. The government motion was defeated by 285 votes to 272, a move which effectively ruled out UK participation in any US-led military strikes.

Before Politics

Elizabeth Mary Truss was born in Oxford on 26 July 1975. She grew up partly in Paisley, Scotland, before the family moved to Leeds, where she attended Roundhay School, a state comprehensive.

Truss’ parents, John Truss (mathematics professor) and Priscilla Truss (nurse and teacher), were described by her as being “to the left of Labour”.

Truss studied philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at Merton College, Oxford University.

After graduating, Truss qualified as a chartered management accountant. She worked for Shell from 1996 to 2000, and then as economics director for the telecommunications company Cable & Wireless from 2000 to 2005. She later served as deputy director of the centre-right think tank Reform from 2008 until her election to parliament in 2010.

Truss served as a Conservative councillor in the London borough of Greenwich from 2006 to 2010.

Personal Life

Truss married accountant Hugh O’Leary in 2000. They have two daughters.

In the late 2000s, it was revealed that Truss had previously had an extramarital affair with Conservative MP Mark Field.

Trivia

During her time at university, Truss was president of the Oxford University Liberal Democrats. She spoke at the party’s 1994 conference in favour of abolishing the monarchy.

Truss joined the Conservative Party in 1996.