Liz Truss is the next in line to become the United Kingdom’s prime minister after a ballot of party members selected her as the new Conservative Party leader on Monday. 

Truss beat Rishi Sunak with 81,326 to 60,399 votes to emerge prime minister-in-waiting. She will succeed Boris Johnson, who will leave Downing Street this month, and become the UK’s third female prime minister. 

Truss, who is the minister for women and equalities, said she was honoured to be elected leader.

“I am honoured to be elected Leader of the Conservative Party. Thank you for putting your trust in me to lead and deliver for our great country. I will take bold action to get all of us through these tough times, grow our economy, and unleash the United Kingdom’s potential,” she tweeted on Monday.

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Truss’ 57% was even less than Johnson’s share of the vote – 66.4% – in 2019.

The new leader of the Conservative Party thanked Sunak for a hard-fought campaign, promising to start cutting taxes “from day one” as UK Prime Minister. She will announce her new cabinet in the coming hours. 

Johnson remains prime minister but will tender his resignation letter to Queen Elizabeth II this week. He had conceded to a rebellion by his cabinet, a wave of resignations among cabinet members, loss of the Conservative Party’s support and backlash for his handling of a party member’s sexual assault scandal in July.