Liz Truss

United Kingdom state institutions Conservatism and Christian democracy 1975.7.26.–

British prime minister whose 2022 mini-budget set off a gilt crisis and who resigned after fifty days

Born in Oxford, Truss studied philosophy, politics and economics at Merton College, Oxford, and joined the Conservative Party in 1996. She became MP for South West Norfolk in 2010 and co-founded the Free Enterprise Group of Conservative MPs. In the cabinets of Cameron, May and Johnson she held the environment, justice and international trade portfolios before serving as foreign secretary in 2021–22. Becoming Conservative leader and prime minister in September 2022, she announced the Energy Price Guarantee, but when her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng presented a mini-budget of large tax cuts funded by borrowing, the financial markets were shaken. After most of the cuts were reversed she stepped down on her fiftieth day in office, the shortest-serving prime minister in British history.

Also known as: Mary Elizabeth Truss