The fact that Liz Truss won with a narrower margin of victory than any of her predecessors on Monday suggests she may need to put in a lot of effort to unite a profoundly divided and underperforming governing party.
Truss defeated Rishi Sunak, a former finance minister, with 57% of the votes from Conservative Party members to 43% for Sunak. This victory was by a margin that was comfortable but not as large as some polls had predicted.
Polls taken during the race for the presidency predicted a wider victory for Truss. In an August YouGov poll, Truss had 69% of the vote to Sunak’s 31%.
She has had less support from Conservative parliamentarians than any of her predecessors this century, and her triumph was the closest since 2001, when Conservative members first had a say in who would lead their party.
Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen stated, “It was closer than expected.” You’d be amazed at how this party can come together and work as a unit at the end of the week, the speaker said.
In her acceptance speech, Truss ruled out a quick election and vowed to lead the Conservative Party to a “big win” in the 2024 general election.
Truss declared, “I ran for office as a Conservative, and I will serve as a Conservative.” Over the next two years, we must deliver.
Both Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, and Scotland’s leader Nicola Sturgeon, who wants her nation to secede from the rest of the United Kingdom, made fun of the extent of the victory.
The amount of Truss’s triumph, according to Sturgeon, was less than the backing Scotland would require to win independence under a new statute she is apparently proposing.
According to the media, Truss is drafting a new referendum bill that will need 50% of eligible voters to support independence for Scotland rather than merely a majority of those who cast ballots.
According to O’Grady, the extent of her victory would fall short of the threshold that Truss wants union members to declare in order for workers to be able to strike legally in the future.
2019 saw 66% of the vote go to Boris Johnson, Truss’s predecessor who was forced to resign due to a series of scandals. With 68% of the vote, David Cameron easily defeated David Davis in the 2005 election.
The last three Tory leaders appealed on Monday for the party to unite around Truss as the country’s new prime minister, saying it was crucial the Conservatives now work together to face the difficulties facing Britain.