Liz Truss resigned as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on Thursday, October 20. Truss was in office for only 44 days. She is now the PM with the shortest stint in office in UK history. 

Who is Liz Truss?

Liz Truss, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk since 2010, announced on July 10 her intention to run in the Conservative Party leadership election.

Truss was born Mary Elizabeth Truss on 26 July 1975 in Oxford, England, to John Kenneth and Priscilla Mary Truss. Her father was a professor of mathematics at the University of Leeds, while her mother was a nurse, teacher, and member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

She moved to Scotland when she was four years old and attended West Primary School in Paisley, Renfrewshire, followed by Roundhay School. She lived in Canada for a year. She read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Merton College, Oxford.

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Truss served as Foreign Secretary since 2021 and Minister for Women and Equalities since 2019. She served in various cabinet positions under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Theresa May, and Boris Johnson.

Before joining politics, she worked as a manager at Shell and a director at Cable & Wireless. She founded the Free Enterprise Group of Conservative MPs, and authored or co-authored a number of papers and books, including After the Coalition (2011) and Britannia Unchained (2012).

Truss served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Childcare and Education from 2012 to 2014, before being appointed to the Cabinet by Cameron as Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the 2014 cabinet reshuffle. 

After Cameron resigned in July 2016, Truss was appointed Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor by Theresa May, becoming the first female Lord Chancellor in the thousand-year history of the office.

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Following the 2017 general election, Truss was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury. After May resigned in 2019, Truss supported Boris Johnson’s successful bid to become Conservative leader.

After Johnson became the prime minister, he appointed Truss as Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade. She is the first female Conservative Foreign Secretary and the second female Foreign Secretary, after Margaret Beckett.