Half of Brits ‘disappointed’ with Truss as PM – poll

Only four percent of Britons say they are “very pleased” to see Liz Truss as the new prime minister, a YouGov poll suggests

Britons do not appear to be particularly enthusiastic about Foreign Secretary Liz Truss taking over as the new prime minister, a YouGov poll published on Monday suggests. A half of people in the UK said they were “disappointed” to know that Truss would form the next cabinet and a third were “very disappointed” about such a prospect.

Only four percent of respondents welcomed the development by saying that they were “very pleased” to see Truss at Downing Street, 10 and another 18% of Britons said they were “fairly pleased” with such an outcome.

Most people in the UK (67%) appeared to be particularly skeptical about Truss’ ability to tackle the rising cost of living – a top issue on the Britons’ agenda, according to another fresh YouGov poll. Almost 40% of respondents said they had “no confidence” at all when it comes to the incoming prime minister’s potential of getting to grips with the issue.

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Truss beat her rival, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, at the Conservative leadership election as she was supported by 81,326 Tories while Sunak got the backing of 60,399 Conservative Party members. Yet, her support among the Conservative voters appears to be far from universal either, according to YouGov.

Only four in ten Conservative voters say they are pleased with her victory and around a third of them have confidence in her ability to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. More than a half of them (54%) do not have much confidence in her skills in this regard and about a third are disappointed with her leading the government.

About 40% of Britons believe that Truss would be “about the same” as the outgoing prime minister, Boris Johnson, whom she is about to replace. Slightly more than a quarter (27%) think she could be even worse and only 14% are inclined to give her more credit.

Truss is the third woman to become British prime minister after Cold War-era political giant Margaret Thatcher and Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May. She will officially take office on Tuesday after a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.