Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022.

The member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk from 2010 to 2024, Truss held various Cabinet positions under three prime ministers—David Cameron, Theresa May, and Boris Johnson—lastly as foreign secretary from 2021 to 2022.

Truss co-founded the Free Enterprise Group of Conservative MPs and wrote or co-wrote a number of papers and books, including After the Coalition and Britannia Unchained.

Johnson promoted Truss to foreign secretary in the 2021 cabinet reshuffle; during her time in the position she led negotiations on the Northern Ireland Protocol and the British response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[12] When Truss was 12 she and her family spent a year in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, where she attended Parkcrest Elementary School whilst her father taught at Simon Fraser University.

[25][26] In 2000 she was employed by Cable & Wireless and rose to the position of economic director before leaving in 2005;[27] one of her colleagues there, the Labour peer George Robertson, said that Truss "had a passion for politics ... she [was] fresh minded, enthusiastic and the Tory Party needed people like that".

[28] In January 2008, after losing her first two elections, Truss became the deputy director of Reform, a centre-right think tank, where she advocated for more focus on countering serious and organised crime, higher standards in schools and action to tackle Britain's "falling competitiveness".

[42] At the 2001 general election Truss was selected for the safe Labour seat of Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, coming a distant second but achieving a 3.2 per cent swing to the Conservatives, thought impressive by her party colleagues.

[7][44] The election saw the Conservatives make a net gain of one seat, which was considered a disappointment;[45] the party leader, William Hague, subsequently resigned, with Truss supporting the former defence secretary Michael Portillo's unsuccessful leadership campaign.

[50] Following the 2005 general election David Cameron replaced Michael Howard as leader, and Truss was added to the party's A-List, a list of potential Conservative candidates;[44] in October 2009 she was selected for the constituency of South West Norfolk by members of the local Conservative Association, winning over 50 per cent of the vote in the first round of the final against five other candidates, including the future deputy prime minister Thérèse Coffey.

[56] On 16 November, the motion was put to the association: following both sides making their arguments, including what Cole and Heale call an "impassioned" speech from Truss, it was defeated by 132 votes to 37.

[69] Truss soon became well known amongst members of Parliament in Norfolk for her frequent photo ops but was well respected amongst Conservative MPs, who recognised her as dedicated and hard-working, and by staff as attentive to local issues.

[98] Under Truss, Defra launched a ten-year strategy to counter falling bee populations,[99] approved the limited temporary lifting of a European Union ban on the use of two neonicotinoid pesticides[100][101] and cut subsidies for solar panels on agricultural land.

[108][109] The referendum resulted in the defeat of Remain and Cameron's resignation; the home secretary Theresa May won the ensuing leadership election and subsequently became leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister.

[119][120][121] In November 2016, Truss was accused of failing to support the judiciary after three judges of the High Court were criticised by politicians and by the Daily Mail—which ran with the headline "Enemies of the People"—for ruling against the government on whether Article 50—which would begin the process of leaving the EU—could be triggered without Parliament's approval.

[122] A former lord chancellor, Charlie Falconer, suggested that, like her immediate predecessors, Truss lacked legal expertise and called for her to be dismissed as justice secretary as her perceived inadequate response "[signalled] to the judges that they have lost their constitutional protector".

[126][127] Despite what Cole and Heale describe as her "knocked" confidence from the demotion, Truss soon began to contribute to the department, using it, according to a Treasury worker, "like her own personal think tank" by asking for research and advice on monetary policy.

[129] Beginning in December 2017 she developed an enthusiasm for cultivating her presence on Twitter and Instagram; Truss began to plan ministerial visits around photo ops for her social media.

[130][131][132] Some of her civil servants were reported as finding her tenure as chief secretary "exhausting", owing to her work schedule and asking them multiplication questions, a tactic she had first employed as an MP.

[134] In June 2018 Truss gave a speech criticising rules and regulations which she said "just g[ot] in the way of consumers' choices and lifestyles", including the government's efforts to reduce alcohol consumption and unhealthy eating habits, and warned that raising taxes could see the Conservatives being "crushed" at the polls.

[135] She also attacked colleagues who she said should realise "it's not macho just to demand more money",[136] a jibe at the defence secretary Gavin Williamson, who had mounted a largely unsuccessful campaign for an extra £20 billion for his department, including threatening to write "Liz Truss blocked your pay" to everybody in the British Armed Forces.

[147] Truss met with her American counterpart Robert Lighthizer on her first trip to the US, where she gave what Cole and Heale describe as an "incendiary" speech on a potential US–UK trade deal.

[172] Truss supported a plan which declassified a large amount of intelligence on Russia, releasing it to the public for the first time in order to weaken the Russian government in the event of an invasion.

[183] Throughout the first half of 2022 Johnson's position as prime minister became increasingly unstable owing to successive scandals damaging his government and his personal reputation,[184] including Partygate, which resulted in him and the chancellor Rishi Sunak receiving fixed penalty notices.

Johnson again considered giving Truss the chancellorship, but decided against it owing to what Payne calls the "fragile geopolitical situation" and instead selected Nadhim Zahawi as Sunak's replacement.

[223] It was blamed for the pound falling to its lowest ever rate against the US dollar (US$1.033)[224] and prompted a response from the Bank of England which, amongst other measures, bought up government bonds; the public reaction was also broadly negative.

[232] Hunt reversed many of the remaining policies announced in the mini-budget, leading to further instability;[236][237] because of Truss's perceived weakness, he was described by some Conservative MPs and newspapers as the de facto prime minister.

[242] She was pilloried in national and international press as a u-turner,[243][244] and a chaotic vote on fracking along with the resignation of Braverman as home secretary compounded a rapid deterioration of confidence in her leadership.

[260] In February 2024 she co-launched the Popular Conservatism group with others including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Lee Anderson and Priti Patel and spoke at its inaugural event.

[274][275] Truss has supported Taiwan in the context of deteriorating cross-strait relations but, citing precedent, refused to visit the island as prime minister[276][277][278] and condemned the Chinese government's treatment of the Uyghur people as "genocide".