U.K. Conservative party names Liz Truss new leader and next prime minister

Britain's ruling Conservatives announced early Monday that Liz Truss has been selected as the party's new leader, and the U.K.'s next prime minister.

Truss was the favorite after a weeks-long leadership contest against Rishi Sunak, a former finance minister. She will replace Boris Johnson, who resigned in July after numerous scandals.

Johnson will travel to Scotland on Tuesday to formally hand his resignation to Queen Elizabeth. His successor will then be asked to form a new government. The next prime minister will be the Conservatives' fourth since 2015.

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The new leader will take over ahead of what economists warn could be a long recession, with inflation that hit 10.1 percent in July. Read more about the major issues facing Truss at The Week U.K.

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.