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<\/div>\nQueen Elizabeth was shaking hands with Liz Truss two days ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
London: <\/b><\/p>\n
Just two days before her death, Queen Elizabeth II had appointed Liz Truss as Britain’s new Prime Minister after the resignation of Boris Johnson.<\/p>\n
Former Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, 47, was seen in an official photograph shaking hands with the monarch to accept her offer to form a new government and become the 15th Prime Minister of her 70-year reign.<\/p>\n
The symbolic ceremony took place at the sovereign’s remote Balmoral retreat in the Scottish Highlands, as the queen, 96, was deemed unfit to return to London due to ill health.<\/p>\n
“The queen received in audience the right honourable Elizabeth Truss MP today and requested her to form a new administration,” Buckingham Palace had said in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n
“Ms Truss accepted Her Majesty’s offer and kissed hands upon her appointment as Prime Minister.”<\/p>\n
The last time the handover of power took place at Balmoral was in 1885, when queen Victoria was on the throne.<\/p>\n
Normally, the outgoing and incoming Prime Minister meet the queen in quick succession at Buckingham Palace in central London.<\/p>\n
It has only been held once outside London since 1952, when Winston Churchill met the new queen at Heathrow Airport after the death of her father, king George VI.<\/p>\n
Liz Truss was announced winner of an internal vote of Conservative Party members on Monday after a gruelling contest that began in July.<\/p>\n
To-do list<\/strong><\/p>\n Liz Truss faces a daunting to-do list, with the UK facing its worst economic crisis in decades, with double-digit inflation and sky-rocketing gas and electricity bills.<\/p>\n Truss, who touts herself as a free-market liberal, has promised tax cuts to stimulate growth, despite warnings that greater borrowing could make inflation worse.<\/p>\n British media reported on Tuesday that she would freeze energy bills for hard-pressed households and business which could cost some 100 billion pounds.<\/p>\n The contrast to her beaten leadership rival Rishi Sunak’s more cautious approach has opened another rift in the Conservative Party that was already divided by Boris Johnson’s departure.<\/p>\n Recent opinion polls suggest a sizeable chunk of the British public have no faith in her ability to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.<\/p>\n A new poll by YouGov said only 14 percent expect Truss — the fourth Tory prime minister in six years — to do a better job than Boris Johnson.<\/p>\n Johnson, whose tenure was dominated by Brexit and Covid and cut short by a succession of scandals, earlier promised Truss his unswerving support as he made a farewell speech in Downing Street.<\/p>\n “I will be supporting Liz Truss and the new government every step of the way,” he said.<\/p>\n He urged the Tories to put aside their ideological differences which have seen the party fight like cats and dogs over how best to tackle the energy crisis.<\/p>\n “If Dilyn (his dog) and Larry (the Downing Street cat) can put behind them their occasional difficulties then so can the Conservative party,” he added.<\/p>\n In her acceptance speech on Monday, Liz Truss had ruled out seeking her own mandate from the public at an early general election, vowing victory in 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n