LONDON — Liz Truss, Britain’s new leader, promised a major package of support this week to help ease the pain from rising energy bills, delivering her first address to the nation as prime minister.
“I will take action this day and every day” to deal with the crises facing Britain, Truss vowed on the steps of a rain-lashed 10 Downing Street on Tuesday, channeling former leader Winston Churchill’s urgent missives to staff.
Truss, who became the U.K.’s fourth premier in just over six years on Tuesday, confirmed she would “take action this week to deal with energy bills,” with an announcement on the support package expected Thursday.
She cited three priorities as she took office: growing the economy through tax cuts and reform; dealing “hands on” with the energy crisis; and tackling the pandemic-fueled backlog in the National Health Service.
The new leader succeeds Boris Johnson as the country faces brutal economic headwinds that threaten to plunge millions of Britons into poverty this winter. Her team is drawing up plans for an economic intervention potentially costing £170 billion ($197 billion) — more than 5% of Britain’s gross domestic product and bigger than the NHS budget — to fix the average gas and electricity bill for U.K. households, and lower costs for businesses.
The energy crisis, linked to soaring gas prices caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine, is just one of the items in her forbidding in-tray. She also has to unite a divided Conservative Party and win over her backbenchers, the majority of whom did not support her in the first stage of the race to replace Johnson.
Financial markets are watching her plans closely: The pound, gilts and corporate bonds saw their biggest sell-offs in years last month in anticipation of her victory in the Tory contest, but sterling saw a modest rally after Bloomberg reported her energy plan.
Truss is expected to appoint her Cabinet of ministers later Tuesday, with longtime ally Kwasi Kwarteng due to become the first Black Chancellor of the Exchequer and Jacob Rees-Mogg tapped to be business secretary. They’ve been leading on the Truss team’s engagement with industry over her energy plans.
As well as facing rampant inflation, Truss also has to manage a crumbling health service and labor strikes bringing transport networks to a halt. Overseas, London is at loggerheads with Brussels and Washington over Brexit, in part due to the path she forged as foreign secretary.
Truss said she was “honored” to become prime minister and delivered a typically optimistic outlook for Britain’s prospects in the face of gathering storm clouds.
“We shouldn’t be daunted by the challenges we face," she insisted, adding, “We can ride out the storm, we can rebuild our economy and we can become the modern, brilliant Britain that I know we can be.”
