New Delhi: UK foreign minister Lizz Truss becomes the 11th contender to announce her candidacy in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as the leader of the conservative party and prime minister on Sunday, reported news agency AFP. "I am putting myself forward because I can lead, deliver and make the tough decisions. I have a clear vision of where we need to be, and the experience and resolve to get us there," Truss told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Truss had cut short her trip to a G20 meeting in Indonesia and returned to London to announce her bid in the upcoming contest.
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Who’s UK foreign minister Lizz Truss?
As a seven-year-old, Truss had played the role of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in her school’s 1983 mock elections.
Born in Leeds, Truss started her career as an economist and accountant with a Conservative membership card. She was elected as a councilor in Greenwich in 2006, and then as MP for South West Norfolk in 2010. Notably, she failed twice in her bids to become an MP before finally getting elected as representative for the east England constituency.
She went on to become an Education Minister, Secretary of State for the Environment, Justice Secretary, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for International Trade, and President of the Board of Trade, as well as Minister for Women and Equalities.
In September 2021, she was appointed as Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs. She is the second female Foreign Secretary after Margaret Beck.
Truss is a low-tax, free-trade champion and had once opposed Brexit but is hopeful that her straight talk and experience on the world stage can help her convince both colleagues and the Tory grassroots of her leadership skillṣ
She also recreated some scenes of the most iconic images of Britain’s 1980s leader, riding atop a tank in Estonia and sporting a Russian fur hat in Moscow.