Mary Elizabeth Truss, commonly known as Liz Truss, is a British politician born on 26 July 1975 in Oxford, England.
She served as the 56th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 6 September to 25 October 2022, becoming the shortest-serving prime minister in British history after resigning amid economic and political turmoil.
The daughter of John Kenneth Truss, an emeritus professor of pure mathematics at the University of Leeds, and Priscilla Mary Truss, a nurse and teacher who was active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, she grew up in a left-leaning household.
The family moved to Paisley, Scotland, when she was four and later to Leeds, with a year spent in Canada.
Truss studied philosophy, politics and economics at Merton College, Oxford, where she was president of the Oxford University Liberal Democrats before joining the Conservative Party in 1996.
Siblings
Liz is the eldest surviving child in her family and has three younger brothers: Chris Truss, born around 1978; Patrick Truss, born around 1980; and Francis Truss, born around 1982.
Their parents’ first child, a son named Matthew, died in infancy in 1974 before Liz was born.
Francis, the youngest, has spoken in interviews about family dynamics, describing dinner-table conversations that focused on political issues and campaigns rather than everyday topics.
Career
After graduating from Oxford, Truss began her professional life in the private sector, joining Shell as a graduate trainee and rising to commercial manager between 1996 and 2000 while qualifying as a chartered management accountant.
She then worked as economics director at Cable & Wireless until 2005.
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From 2008 to 2010 she served as deputy director of the centre-right think tank Reform.
She entered electoral politics by contesting the safe Labour seat of Hemsworth in 2001 and Calder Valley in 2005, both unsuccessfully, before winning election as Conservative MP for South West Norfolk in 2010.
She served as a Greenwich councillor from 2006 to 2010.
In government she held a succession of roles under three prime ministers.
David Cameron appointed her Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Childcare in 2012 and promoted her to Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2014.
Under Theresa May she became the first woman to serve as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice in 2016, later moving to Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2017.
Boris Johnson appointed her Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade in 2019, a post she held alongside the Women and Equalities brief, before elevating her to Foreign Secretary in 2021.
In that role she handled negotiations on the Northern Ireland Protocol and the UK response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Following Boris Johnson’s resignation she won the Conservative leadership contest against Rishi Sunak and was appointed prime minister by Queen Elizabeth II on 6 September 2022.
Accolades
Truss became the youngest female cabinet minister in UK history upon her appointment to the Environment portfolio.
In 2016 she was the first woman to hold the ancient office of Lord Chancellor.
As Foreign Secretary she was only the second woman and the first Conservative woman to occupy that senior post.
During her short premiership she appointed what was described as the most ethnically diverse Cabinet in UK history.
She is remembered as the last prime minister appointed by Queen Elizabeth II and the first to serve under King Charles III, as well as the shortest-serving prime minister in British history.
Her continuous ministerial service from 2012 to 2022 marked one of the longer recent spells at the Cabinet table prior to her elevation to the premiership.
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