MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Truss announces new cabinet to face “the storm”

The new PM rekindled the spirit of Margaret Thatcher.

Britain's newly-appointed Prime Minister Liz Truss Tuesday vowed to weather the “the storm” the country is going through and appointed her new cabinet for that task.

Hours earlier she had been entrusted by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new government following Boris Johnson's resignation.

Truss chose MP Thérèse Coffey as deputy prime minister. Coffey will also handle the Health portfolio, while Kwasi Kwarteng was picked for Finance.

Replacing Truss at Foreign Affairs will be James Cleverly, who has already held lower positions in this Ministry and was until now Minister of Education.

Suella Braverman, one of the Conservative Party's candidates to succeed Johnson and who was cast aside in the early rounds of voting, will head the Home Office, while Brandon Lewis, who resigned in July as head of the British Government for Northern Ireland, will be in charge of Justice.

The only surviving minister from the Johnson era is Ben Wallace, who will stay at the helm of Defense, at a time when the United Kingdom is assisting Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion.

A looming recession, rising inflation, social protests, an energy crisis and its ensuing high bills are some of the most urgent issues Truss, 47, needs to deal with, in addition to the war in Ukraine and the post-COVID-19 context in a Brexit scenario.

In her first speech in front of the door marked with the number 10 and amid an unsettling downpour, Truss rekindled the spirit of Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, while insisting on her promise to cut down taxes and revamp the health infrastructure.