Liz Truss

Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth day in office, she stepped down amid a government crisis, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in the history of the United Kingdom. Truss previously held various Cabinet positions under prime ministers David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, lastly as foreign secretary from 2021 to 2022. She has been the member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk since 2010. Truss studied philosophy, politics and economics at Merton College, Oxford, and was the president of Oxford University Liberal Democrats. In 1996, she joined the Conservative Party. She worked at Shell and Cable & Wireless and was the deputy director of the think tank Reform. After two unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the House of Commons, she was elected as the MP for South West Norfolk at the 2010 general election. As a backbencher, she called for reform in several policy areas including childcare, mathematics education and the economy. Truss founded the Free Enterprise Group of Thatcherite Conservative MPs and wrote or co-wrote a number of papers and books, including After the Coalition (2011) and Britannia Unchained (2012). Truss served as the parliamentary under-secretary of state for childcare and education from 2012 to 2014, before Cameron appointed her secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs in a cabinet reshuffle. Although she supported the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign for the UK to remain in the European Union, Truss supported Brexit after the outcome of the 2016 referendum. Following Cameron's resignation in 2016, his successor Theresa May appointed her as secretary of state for justice and lord chancellor, making Truss the first woman to serve as lord chancellor in the office's thousand-year history. After the 2017 general election, Truss was made the chief secretary to the Treasury.