The incoming prime minister will enter No 10 on Tuesday after defeating Rishi Sunak to become Tory leader.
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Liz Truss has promised to deal with surging energy costs and to cut taxes after winning the Tory leadership contest to become the next PM.
She will succeed Boris Johnson after being formally appointed by the Queen at Balmoral Castle on Tuesday.
The 47-year-old, the UK’s third woman PM, will then announce her cabinet with jobs expected for allies Kwasi Kwarteng and James Cleverly.
She beat rival Rishi Sunak with 57% of the vote, a narrower win than expected.
In her victory speech, she promised a “bold” programme of tax cuts to grow the flagging economy and prevent the UK tipping into recession.
She will take the reins of power on Tuesday, bringing Boris Johnson’s turbulent premiership to an end less than three years after the Conservatives’ resounding election victory in 2019.
Ms Truss’s most pressing decision as premier will be how best to shield households and businesses from the soaring price of energy internationally.
Her team is understood to have been working on a support package for weeks, with an announcement pencilled in for Thursday.
Industry sources told the BBC they expect the incoming government to back freezing bills, a move which would costs billions.
The move would not necessarily require upfront funding, however, with reports the government could cover loans to companies repaid by consumers over time in the form of higher fixed prices.
Small businesses are also expected to be offered some relief, although the BBC has been told details of the plan may not be included in Thursday’s announcement.
Speaking at the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre in London, she told party activists she would “deliver on the energy crisis” by dealing with bills and boosting the UK’s domestic energy sources.
Things will feel different. Very different.
They are bound to – Boris Johnson was the very definition of a primary colours, performance prime minister.
But Liz Truss inherits the same challenges he was confronted by.
Governing when millions are confronted by unpayable bills. Governing during a war in Europe and in the aftermath of a pandemic.
And governing a party that’s already been in power for 12 years.
Those expected to be appointed to her top team include Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor, former leadership rival Suella Braverman as home secretary and James Cleverly as foreign secretary.
Following Ms Truss’s victory, the current Home Secretary Priti Patel said she would step down but promised to support the new leader from the backbenches.
Mr Johnson congratulated Ms Truss on her victory and said she had the right plan to “unite our party”.
Ms Truss paid tribute to her “friend” Mr Johnson in her victory speech, adding he would be “admired from Kyiv to Carlisle” for his record in office.
“Boris, you got Brexit done, you crushed Jeremy Corbyn, you rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin,” she said.
In a break with tradition, the outgoing and incoming prime ministers are expected to travel to Balmoral Castle in Scotland for the handover of power, rather than Buckingham Palace.
The Queen has been suffering from mobility issues and it is understood the change was made to prevent the need for any last-minute rearrangements.
Ms Truss has promised £30bn in tax cuts in an emergency Budget later this month, having blamed the tax burden for the UK’s sluggish growth.
Her proposed cuts include reversing the rise in National Insurance under Mr Johnson’s tenure, temporarily ditching green levies on energy bills, and scrapping a planned rise to corporation tax.
As well as the domestic agenda, her in-tray also includes continuing to support Ukraine after its invasion by Russia and repairing a fractious relationship with the EU over Northern Ireland.
Former chancellor Rishi Sunak, who attacked her economic plans during the campaign, told the BBC he would offer her his “full support”.
He said he will stand again to be an MP at the next general election, but is not expected to be in Ms Truss’s cabinet.
Image source, .
Labour has called on Ms Truss to expand the windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies to part-fund a six month freeze to domestic prices.
The party followed the Liberal Democrats earlier this summer in backing a freeze, along with the SNP.
Ms Truss, however, has ruled out further windfall taxes, saying during the campaign it “sends the wrong message to international investors”.
Speaking earlier, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer pledged to work with Ms Truss to deliver a freeze, saying there was cross-party agreement on the idea.
He criticised her approach on the economy, arguing she had talked more in her campaign about cutting taxes for businesses than the cost of living crisis.
“That shows that not only is she out of touch, but that she’s not on the side of working people,” he added.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey told BBC News Ms Truss “appears to have no plan whatsoever” to deal with rising prices, and the Tories were responsible for “lamentable” economic growth.
SNP leader and Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon called for the price freeze to include businesses, which are not normally covered by the UK’s energy price cap, and extra cash support.
What has Liz Truss said on the big issues?
Cost of living
- Promises to announce a plan to help people and businesses with soaring energy costs within a week of becoming prime minister
- Plans an emergency budget to set out measures that would get the economy growing in order to fund public services and the NHS
- Says she will tackle the crisis by putting money back into people’s pockets, such as by immediately reversing the National Insurance rise
- Promises not to revisit the idea of windfall taxes on energy firms and rules out energy rationing this winter
- Would suspend what is known as the “green levy” – part of your energy bill that pays for social and green projects
- Promises to change taxes to make it easier for people to stay at home to care for children or elderly relatives
- Says the Bank of England needs to do more to tackle inflation, arguing “we haven’t been tough enough on the monetary supply” during a leadership debate
Read more about Liz Truss
Tax & spending
- Says she will reverse the recent rise in National Insurance, which came into effect in April, and hold an emergency budget by the end of September
- Pledges not to bring in any new taxes and to scrap a planned rise in corporation tax – set to increase from 19% to 25% in 2023
- Would suspend what is known as the “green levy” – part of your energy bill that pays for social and green projects
- Says she will pay for the cuts by spreading the UK’s “Covid debt” over a longer period
- Promises to change taxes to make it easier for people to stay at home to care for children or elderly relatives
- Wants to create new “low-tax and low-regulation zones” across the country to create hubs for innovation and enterprise
- Says she won’t cut public spending unless there is a way to do so that won’t lead to future problems
- Would bring target of spending 2.5% of GDP on defence forward to 2026 and introduce a new target of 3% by 2030
Read more about Liz Truss
Climate
- Says she will honour the goal of reaching net zero by 2050 and spoke of “accelerating our transition to net zero” at the COP26 climate summit
- Would suspend what is known as the “green levy” – part of your energy bill that pays for social and green projects
- Would review the ban on fracking
- Says the UK needs to build more nuclear power stations and small modular nuclear reactors and would review the ban on fracking
- Wants to protect wildlife and biodiversity better and would launch a new UK survey of wildlife to understand which species are endangered
- As environment secretary, she cut subsidies for solar farms calling them “a blight on the landscape”
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Brexit
- Argues she can be trusted with Brexit despite voting Remain in the 2016 referendum
- Responsible for introducing the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which could override parts of the post-Brexit deal between the UK and the EU
- Says UK courts should be the “ultimate arbiter” and that trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain must be “free-flowing”
- Promises to scrap or replace by the end of 2023 EU laws considered to be holding back the economy
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Health & social care
- Has pledged to divert a greater share of healthcare spending towards helping with social care
- Says GP services need to be more accessible in order to reduce the pressures on hospital services
- Says there should be more mental health support available in schools
- Wants to encourage doctors who came out of retirement to help the NHS during the pandemic “to come back into the profession”
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Education
- Pledges to give every child “the best opportunity to succeed” wherever they are from and whatever their background
- Would expand existing high-performing academy schools, and replace failing establishments with free schools
- Promises parents more childcare around the school day and to widen the range of providers who accept government childcare entitlements
- Wants to reform university admission procedures so students apply after getting their A-levels (or equivalent) rather than based on predicted grades
- Says students receiving top grades should be invited automatically to apply to Oxford and Cambridge
- Wants more mental health support available in schools
- Says she wants schools to provide single sex toilets
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Housing & planning
- Says she would end “Stalinist” housing targets – the government currently wants 300,000 homes built in England every year
- Plans to create “opportunity zones” with tax cuts and deregulation, making it easier and quicker to build on brownfield sites
- Wants to help first-time buyers by incorporating rental payments into mortgage assessments
Read more about Liz Truss