Liz Truss became British prime minister Tuesday after being appointed by Queen Elizabeth, pledging to shore up the country's inflation-plagued economy.
Truss, 47, the former foreign secretary, won the ruling Conservative Party leadership race on Monday after securing 57.4 percent of party member votes, beating her opponent Rishi Sunak, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, who received 42.6 percent.
Speaking outside her official residence in Downing Street, Truss said the country faces "severe global headwinds" and her priorities will include lowering taxes and curbing rising energy prices.
"Now is the time to tackle the issues that are holding Britain back...it won't be easy but we can do it," she said.
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On foreign affairs, she added, "United with our allies, we will stand up for freedom and democracy around the world, recognizing that we can't have security at home without having security abroad."
Shortly before, outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson officially tendered his resignation. He decided to step down following a wave of resignations triggered by a series of scandals that cast his integrity into question.
Speaking Tuesday morning as he left his official residence as prime minister for the last time, Johnson listed his achievements in office including Brexit, the speedy rollout of vaccines for the novel coronavirus and prompt supply of weapons to Ukraine, "an action that may very well have helped change the course of the biggest European war for 80 years."
Addressing the energy crisis caused in large part by Russia's war in Ukraine, he said, "Liz Truss and this compassionate Conservative government will do everything we can to get people through this crisis. This country will endure it and we will win."
"And if Putin thinks that he can succeed by blackmailing or bullying the British people then he is utterly deluded," Johnson added, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Johnson and Truss had to travel to Scotland, where the 96-year-old monarch is currently on vacation, for the appointment ceremony. Buckingham Palace officials could not guarantee the queen would be able to travel to London due to her ongoing mobility issues.
Truss is well known in the Indo-Pacific region, and has cultivated many contacts during her previous role as international trade secretary.
She has been a strong advocate of maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific and has opposed China's attempts to change the regional status quo by force and coercion.
On foreign policy, most commentators think she will adopt a similar posture to Johnson, who championed Ukrainian sovereignty in the face of Russian aggression. She is also committed to boosting defense spending to 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2030.
On the domestic front, in the coming days Truss will address the issue of rising energy prices and is expected to freeze gas and electricity prices for British consumers after steep increases sparked by the war in Ukraine.
Truss won the leadership by campaigning on a manifesto of tax cuts and deregulation, but there are concerns these policies could lead to higher inflation and unsustainable debt levels, according to some experts.
Johnson, who became prime minister in 2019, will be remembered for overseeing Britain's exit from the European Union in 2020.
However, later his premiership became bogged down in various scandals and the party suffered a slump in opinion polls, prompting many Conservative lawmakers to seek to remove him from office.
An official investigation criticized him for a failure of leadership after it was established several parties were held in his official offices that contravened social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic.
Labeled "partygate," the scandal and a related fine imposed on Johnson made him the first British prime minister found to have broken the law while in office.
