Liz Truss has won the race to become Tory leader and Britain’s new Prime Minister. Truss, who was the runaway favourite to win, defeated her rival Rishi Sunak by 81,326 votes to 60,399 – a margin of 57 per cent to 43 per cent. She will take over from Boris Johnson tomorrow, after flying to Balmoral to see the Queen. Her new cabinet is expected to be in place by tomorrow night, with Kwasi Kwarteng the firm favourite to be appointed chancellor. Truss is likely to appoint James Cleverly as foreign secretary and Suella Braverman, the current attorney-general and former leadership contender, as home secretary.

During her acceptance speech, Truss paid tribute to Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson, whom she described as ‘my friend’. She told the outgoing PM: ‘Boris, you got Brexit done. You crushed Jeremy Corbyn. You rolled out the vaccine. And you stood up to Vladimir Putin. You are admired from Kyiv to Carlisle’.

Truss told the audience at the Queen Elizabeth II centre in Westminster: ‘I campaigned as a conservative and I will govern as a conservative…We will deliver, we will deliver and we will deliver. We will deliver a great victory for the Conservative party in 2024.’