Liz Truss will become the next prime minister after defeating Rishi Sunak in the Conservative Party leadership contest.

Ms Truss, who was the favourite to win the contest, will succeed Boris Johnson on Tuesday and become the nation’s third female leader.

She secured 81,326 votes (57%) to Mr Sunak’s 60,399 (43%).

It means she won by a comfortable majority, though it was tighter than some had expected.

Ms Truss said it is an “honour to be elected” as she thanked her party for organising “one of the longest job interviews in history”.

In a short speech after the results were announced, she issued her thanks to the outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson.

“You got Brexit done. You crushed Jeremy Corbyn. You rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin”, she said.

Who is Liz Truss? The prime minister who sees herself as disruptor-in-chief

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Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak to become next Conservative leader and PM today – as Boris Johnson returns to the backbenches

Mr Johnson, who was forced to announce his resignation after a wave of ministers left his government over a series of controversies, will visit the Queen at Balmoral Castle in Scotland to formally tender his resignation.

New PM announced – live updates

Shortly after this, Ms Truss will also meet the Queen, who will invite her to form a government.

Ms Truss is expected to make a speech outside Number 10 once she takes office and will then get to work on appointing her cabinet.

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She faces the immediate challenge of coming up with a package of support to help households weather a worsening cost of living crisis driven by soaring energy bills.

Ms Truss today reiterated her promise to “deliver a bold plan” to cut taxes and grow the economy.

She said: “I will deliver on the energy crisis dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long term issues we have on energy supply.”

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Ms Truss has vowed to outline how she will deal with the energy crisis in her first week has PM.

She has remained tight-lipped about what kind of support package she might introduce – though speculation is mounting it could be a freeze in the energy price cap.

Who is Liz Truss? The prime minister who sees herself as disruptor-in-chief

Mr Sunak and Ms Truss were whittled down to the final two candidates after five rounds of voting by Tory MPs.

The pair went head to head over a summer of hustings and live television debates, during which they clashed repeatedly over their plans for the economy.

Party members had from 1 August to 2 September to cast their votes, which were counted over the weekend.

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