Liz Truss has appeared to rule out an early election as she was named new Prime Minister on Monday (September 5). The current foreign secretary will be handed the keys to Number 10 Downing Street on Tuesday (September 5) after Boris Johnson officially tenders his resignation in a meeting with the Queen at Balmoral.
Truss beat Rishi Sunak with 81,326 votes from the Tory membership, to Sunak’s 60,399. She used her victory speech to indicate she would not be triggering an early general election - as well as to thank outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Truss concluded her statement, made at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London, by saying: “Because my friends, I know that we will deliver, we will deliver and we will deliver. And we will deliver a great victory for the Conservative Party in 2024.”
Read more: Liz Truss statement in full as she's elected as new Prime Minister
The government of the day can decide when to call a general election and the maximum term of a Parliament is five years from the day on which it first met. The current Parliament first met on Tuesday 17 December 2019.
It will automatically dissolve on Tuesday 17 December 2024, unless it has been dissolved sooner by the Queen. Polling Day would be expected to take place 25 days later.
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Voting for the new Prime Minister closed last Friday and the formal announcement was made by Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbench MPs. Truss is the third Conservative prime minister since 2016, when David Cameron quit after losing the Brexit vote.
She is expected to spend rest of the day finalising her choices for Cabinet and wider ministerial roles and writing her first prime ministerial speech.
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