AS had been expected, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, 47, defeated former chancellor Rishi Sunak, 42, in the Conservative Party leadership and will be the next UK Prime Minister, replacing Boris Johnson.

Truss won 81,326 votes (57.4 per cent) compared to Sunak’s 60,399 votes (42.6 per cent).

Sunak had earlier accepted his defeat as he said his job “now is just to support a Conservative government”. He had the most support among Conservative MPs, but when it came to the party grassroots, Truss was the one who had the majority support.

Johnson will give a farewell speech at Downing Street on Tuesday before handing in his resignation to the Queen.

This will be the first time that the Queen, because of mobility problems, will appoint the prime minister at Balmoral, her Scottish retreat, instead of at Buckingham Palace.

Interesting Facts

* Truss spent a year at Parkcrest Elementary School in Burnaby, B.C., in 1987-88 when her father was teaching at Simon Fraser University.

* Sunak, the son of Indians born in Africa, is the husband of Akashata Murty, the daughter of an Indian billionaire.