Who is new foreign secretary Liz Truss?
NEWLY appointed Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is only the second woman to hold the position and the first female Conservative in the role.
After Boris Johnson dramatically reshaped his top team, here is everything we know about Truss.
Who is Liz Truss?
Liz Truss, 46, is a British politician who now serves as Foreign Secretary.
She has also been Minister for Women and Equalities since September 2019, and a Conservative MP for South West Norfolk since 2010.
Truss was born to left-wing parents and went on to study philosophy, politics and economics at Merton College, Oxford.
She launched a career as an economist and accountant before being elected as a councillor in Greenwich in 2006.
She later entered Parliament and then became one of the first MPs of her intake to enter Government in 2012.
Truss describes herself “disruptor-in-chief” and someone who is “not afraid to speak her mind”.
She also refers to herself as a “prolific tweeter” and is among the most followed government ministers on social media with 128,000 followers on Twitter and 15,000 on Instagram.
Truss was a ‘Remainer’ in the 2016 EU referendum, but later admitted she had “changed her mind” on Brexit.
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When was she announced as foreign secretary?
Boris Johnson announced Liz Truss would be stepping up as Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs during his Cabinet reshuffle on September 15, 2021.
Truss was given the job after Dominic Raab, a close ally of the PM, botched Britain’s exit from Afghanistan in August.
She forms part of a new look team ready to fix Britain from the devastation of the pandemic.
And Truss is only the second ever female MP to hold the position after Dame Margaret Mary Beckett under Tony Blair.
What previous roles has she worked in?
Before being crowned Foreign Secretary, Truss worked as International Trade Secretary.
She also held the position of Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2017 to 2019, and Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor Lord Chancellor in Theresa May’s first ministry from 2016 to 2017.
She replaced climate change sceptic Owen Paterson as Environment Secretary in a 2014 reshuffle, bringing the issue – and the fact that “human beings have contributed to it” – to the forefront.
Her first junior ministerial role was as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education, which she left in 2014, but she first entered Parliament in 2010.