Thras’s candidacy was supported by a majority of members of the Conservative Party, voting was held from the end of July by mail. Her opponent was Rishi Sunak, who held the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer until July 5.
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The new head of the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister of Great Britain will be Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom Liz Truss. This was announced at a ceremony in London by the chairman of the Conservative Party, Andrew Stevenson, and the head of the party’s steering committee, Graham Brady.
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The election of the head of the conservatives ended on September 2, about 170,000 party members voted by mail, the results were counted up to September 5. The ceremony of announcing the results was held at the Queen Elizabeth II Congress Center in the center of the British capital in the presence of parliamentarians and members of the House of Lords, broadcasted by the Sky News channel.
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Truss’ rival was ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, who headed the Treasury from February 2020 to July 5, 2022. Truss and Sunak’s candidacies made it onto the final ballot after several rounds of voting in the Conservative parliamentary France in the second half of July. Initially, 12 conservatives nominated candidates for the post of party leader.
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Many predicted Sunak’s victory, recalling his merits in supporting the national economy and citizens of the country during the pandemic. Then the Ministry of Finance, with the support of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, decided to pay up to 80% of the salary to those employees whose companies were forced to close or stopped doing business due to the lockdown. After the first lockdown in the summer of 2020, the Ministry of Finance subsidized cafes and restaurants in exchange for providing visitors with 50% discounts on food, this measure was very popular with the British. Sunak’s merit was also considered that the British economy survived the coronavirus pandemic better than the economies of many European countries.
