Liz Truss wins race to be Britain's new leader

Liz Truss has won the Conservative Party leadership contest, but she'll have to wait until Tuesday to formally become prime minister.

Truss and outgoing leader Boris Johnson will travel to Balmoral in Scotland tomorrow in order to meet with Queen Elizabeth II, as per Britain's unwritten constitution.

The Queen must formally approve the formation of a new government led by Truss. Normally, these meetings would take place quickly at Buckingham Palace, which is a short distance from 10 Downing Street, but the 96-year-old monarch will stay at her Scottish residence this time.

A royal source told CNN that decision was made to avoid last-minute alternative arrangements should the Queen experience any episodic mobility issues.

Once those formalities are finished, Truss will head back to London and arrive in Downing Street. She will announce her new Cabinet, which is likely to include many of her supporters during the contest.

Then, on Wednesday, Truss will face Prime Minister's Questions for the first time.

Conservatives who supported both Liz Truss and her rival Rishi Sunak are privately admitting that Truss’s victory margin was smaller than expected.

It had been predicted by many that her margin of win would be larger than the 18 percentage points announced on Monday afternoon.

What could this mean for her leadership?

It could mean that she cannot run roughshod over her MPs. Truss could find that she has to accommodate a wider range of views from her party, which could mean embracing Sunak’s ideas for helping Britons with the cost-of-living crisis and a less aggressive approach to tax cuts – especially corporation tax.

Many Conservative MPs are privately very worried that Truss’s modern-day Thatcherism could cost them the next election and will be leaping on the surprisingly low margin of victory to encourage the next PM to soften her economic stance.

Labour leader Keir Starmer has responded to Liz Truss's election as the new Conservative leader.

"After 12 years of the Tories all we have to show for it is low wages, high prices, and a Tory cost of living crisis," Starmer said.

He will face Truss in Parliament for the first time later this week, with his party currently topping the government in opinion polls.

Liz Truss ended her short maiden speech as Conservative leader by pledging to win the next general election — and repeatedly insisting that she will “deliver.”

“We need to show that we will deliver over the next two years,” she told the audience. “We all will deliver for our country, and I will make sure that we use all the fantastic talents of the Conservative Party.”

“And we will deliver a great victory for the Conservative Party in 2024,” Truss added. 

But that could be a tall order. The Conservatives are lagging behind the opposition Labour Party in opinion polls, and are now on their fourth leader since 2016.

Truss does not have to wait until 2024 to push for an election, and Labour are likely to clamor for one sooner. But the growing economic crisis shows no signs of abating, and Truss will be judged early in her premiership by how well she can tackle it.

The incoming UK prime minister has promised a “bold plan” to cut taxes and said she will address spiralling energy prices that are driving a cost-of-living crisis in the country.

But Liz Truss offered no details of what either plan will involve; throughout her campaign, her critics, including opponent Rishi Sunak, have pushed her to detail her next steps, with households facing another spike in costs next month.

“I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy,” Truss said. “I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills.”

Liz Truss began her victory speech by congratulating her opponent, Rishi Sunak, who pushed her closer than many expected in the final ballot.

She then gave a hearty tribute to Boris Johnson, who she will replace as prime minister on Tuesday after months of scandals forced him to resign.

“Boris: you got Brexit done, you crushed Jeremy Corbyn, you rolled out the vaccine, and you stood up to Vladimir Putin,” Truss said. “You are admired from Kyiv to Carlisle.”

"I know that our beliefs resonate with the British people," she told the crowd of Conservative members. "I campaigned as a Conservative and I will govern as a Conservative."

Liz Truss, who has served as Boris Johnson’s foreign secretary for the past year, won 57% of the votes of Conservative Party members to become its leader. Rishi Sunak took 43%.

It was a closer than anticipated victory for the longtime favorite, who was popular among party members but won the support of less than a third of her MPs earlier in the leadership contest.

Truss is giving a speech to the Conservative Party conference now; she becomes the party’s leader immediately, and will officially take over as prime minister on Tuesday after meeting Queen Elizabeth II.

WATCH: Liz Truss gives victory speech after winning Conservative Party leadership election

Liz Truss — a tax-cutting crusader who has modeled herself on Margaret Thatcher and endeared herself to the Conservative Party’s pro-Brexit right wing — has won its leadership election and will take over from Boris Johnson tomorrow as the UK’s new leader.

WATCH: See the moment Liz Truss is announced new British prime minister

The British pound dropped to its lowest level against the US dollar since 1985 on Monday, signaling further woes for the UK economy.

Early Monday morning the pound dropped 0.3% to $1.1443 according to MarketWatch. It follows similar falls for the euro as the continent faces a deepening energy crisis.

This signals one of the many challenges that Boris Johnson's successor — the new UK prime minister — will face.