Liz Truss Floors Two Candidates With Kenyan Roots To Become UK Prime Minister
Truss had overcome competition from two candidates with Kenyan parents; former UK Finance Minister Rishin Sunak and UK Attorney General Suella Braverman, who have a Kenyan father and Kenyan mother respectively.
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Britain's Conservative party on Monday, September 5 announced Liz Truss as its new leader to succeed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister.
Truss had overcome competition from two candidates with Kenyan parents; former UK Finance Minister Rishin Sunak and UK Attorney General Suella Braverman, who have a Kenyan father and Kenyan mother respectively.
She beat Sunak by about 57 to 43 per cent after a gruelling summer-long contest decided by just over 170,000 Conservative members -- a tiny sliver of Britain's electorate.
In a short victory speech at the announcement in a central London convention hall, Truss said it was an "honour" to be elected after undergoing "one of the longest job interviews in history".
New Conservative Party leader and incoming prime minister Liz Truss with former UK finance minister, Rishi Sunak. /FILE
Truss, 47, will be only the UK's third female prime minister following Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher. She will formally take office on Tuesday, September 6 after Johnson tenders his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II.
"Thank you to everyone who voted for me in this campaign. I’ve said throughout that the Conservatives are one family.
"It’s right we now unite behind the new PM, Liz Truss, as she steers the country through difficult times," Sunak stated after the defeat.
Sunak had stepped down from the Finance Minister's post to vie for the top job in Britain, whereby he received support from Britons to succeed Johnson.
"Someone has to grip this moment and make the right decisions. That’s why I’m standing to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and your Prime Minister," Sunak told the Conservatives.
He was previously appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, a position he held from February 13, 2020, to July 5, 2022. He also acted as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from July 24 2019, to February 2020.
Sunak was elected Conservative MP for Richmond (Yorks) in May 2015 and served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from June 2017 until his ministerial appointment.
Braverman on the other hand is a British politician and barrister who has been the Attorney General for England and Wales since 2020. She has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Fareham since 2015.
A member of the Conservative Party, she chaired the European Research Group (ERG) from June 19, 2017, to January 9, 2018. She was granted 'QC' after her appointment as Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland in February 2020, having not "taken silk" beforehand nor had enough experience to seek such appointment, in common with other Attorneys-General who were appointed Queen’s Counsel as a courtesy to their role.
Braverman was born to Christie and Uma Fernandes, of Indian origin, who had moved to Britain in the 1960s from Kenya and Mauritius. Her mother was a nurse and a councillor in Brent and her father, of Goan ancestry in South India, worked for a housing association.
She was born in Harrow, Greater London, and grew up in Wembley. She attended the Uxendon Manor Primary School in Brent and the fee-paying Heathfield School, Pinner, on a partial scholarship, after which she studied law at Queens' College, Cambridge.
During her undergraduate studies, she chaired the Cambridge University Conservative Association and had lived in France for two years, as an Erasmus Programme student and then as an Entente Cordiale Scholar, where she completed a master's degree in European and French law at Pantheon-Sorbonne University.
Called to the Bar in 2005, Suella specialised in public law and judicial review. From 2010-2015 she was on the Attorney General’s Panel of Treasury Counsel.
She has defended the Home Office in immigration cases, the Parole Board in challenges by prisoners and the Ministry of Defence in matters relating to injuries sustained in battle.
Braverman was appointed Attorney General on February 13, 2020. She had previously served as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union from January to November 2018.
UK Attorney General Suella Braverman at No. 10 Downing Street in London, United Kingdom. /GETTY IMAGES
She was beforehand elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Fareham in May 2015.
Speaking on Thursday, July 7 during an interview, Braverman maintained that she will not step down from the government but wants to take Johnson's place as Prime Minister after he gave a speech regarding his resignation.
"If there is a leadership contest, I will put my name. I love this country, my parents came here with absolutely nothing, and it is the Britons that gave them hope.
"And to serve as the Prime Minister will be the greatest honour," she told the Guardian.
