Getty New Conservative Party leader and incoming prime minister Liz Truss (R) shakes hands with Conservative Party Chairman Andrew Stephenson upon her arrival at Conservative Party Headquarters on September 5, 2022 in London, England. The Conservative Party have elected Liz Truss as their new leader replacing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who resigned in July.
Liz Truss, the United Kingdom’s incoming prime minister and British conservative party leader, has two teenage daughters in her family, Florence and Liberty. Truss was raised by liberal parents, John and Priscilla Truss, who were politically involved when she was a child.
Truss replaced Boris Johnson as prime minister after winning the vote of Conservative Party members by 81,326 votes to 60,399, beating out former finance minister Rishi Sunak, according to Reuters. She was formally appointed on September 6, 2022 by Queen Elizabeth.
Both girls are the children of Truss and her husband, Hugh O’Leary. Read more about her husband here.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Florence, 16, & Liberty, 13, Are Already Planning Sleepovers With Their Friends
The Guardian reported that Truss’ teenage daughters are “very excited” about moving into the home for Britain’s prime ministers, and that they are already planning sleepovers.
“My younger daughter keeps asking would she be able to have sleepovers if I get into No 10,” Truss told the Evening Standard, referring to the traditional home of British prime ministers.
The Guardian reported that the family has traditions like Thursday night pizza night, which they plan to continue.
“On Thursday nights… friends say the work/life boundaries might blur: Thursday night in the Truss household is currently pizza night, with the family gathering together in their kitchen,” The Guardian reported.
2. The British Prime Minister’s Family Home Includes 56-Acre Park & Heated Swimming Pool
Boris Johnson will officially move out of Downing Street this week, as he will formally resign as Prime Minister on Tuesday. But, who else lives in Downing Street ?👇
Truss and her family will likely make their home at 11 Downing Street, according to the Guardian, where every British prime minister has lived since 1997. Incoming prime ministers have the option of living at either 10 or 11 Downing Street, but in recent years they have chosen the latter for its larger living quarters and “trendy” stainless steel, open plan kitchen, the news outlet reported.
The address includes a 25-hectare park, St. James’s Park, and a “huge” lawn and heated swimming pool, the news outlet said.
Samantha Cameron told The Guardian the living arrangements involved “weirdness” for the children of the former First Family.
“The flat is very private but you’re living above the shop. All the security arrangements make it incredibly hard for people to come and go,” Cameron told The Guardian. “You are living in a fortress. It’s not normal.”
3. Truss’ Husband, Hugh O’Leary, Is an Accountant Who Stays Out of the Limelight
Hugh O’Leary is an accountant who has shied from the spotlight in his wife’s political career. His public appearances are so sparse that he prompted a column from The Guardian joking that perhaps he did not exist.
“Do you believe in Hugh O’Leary?” wrote Columnist Catherine Bennett. “I do, although at this point, after an entire leadership campaign in which Liz Truss’s rumoured husband has gone unseen and barely mentioned, it’s understandable if some people have concluded he enjoys the same figment status as her inborn Yorkshire values or hardship years in Leeds.”
Bennett went on to call O’Leary’s choice to stay out of the spotlight “admirably progressive.”
Truss rarely posts pictures of her husband on social media, but shared a photo on her Instagram page Valentine’s Day with her husband, writing, “Love of my life.”
4. Truss’ Dad, John Truss, Was a Math Professor & a Liberal
Boris Johnson’s successor as British prime minister will be Liz Truss, a low-tax evangelist who models herself on Margaret Thatcher t.co/kTC3Evewyp
John Truss, Elizabeth Truss’ father, was a math professor at the University of Leeds, according to the university’s website. He is listed there as a member of the Logic Group’s academic staff in the school of mathematics.
“The Logic Group at the University of Leeds is one of the largest and most active worldwide, with a long uninterrupted tradition dating back to 1951, when its founder Martin Löb moved to Leeds,” the website says. “It has an international reputation for research in most of the main areas of mathematical logic – computability theory, model theory, set theory, proof theory, and in applications to algebra, analysis, number theory and theoretical computer science.”
A former neighbor told The Times that John Truss was a liberal, and was “sometimes furious” about his daughter’s political leanings, often refusing to speak about it.
5. Truss’ Mom, Priscilla, Was a Nurse & a Teacher
I am honoured to be elected Leader of the Conservative Party.
Thank you for putting your trust in me to lead and deliver for our great country.
I will take bold action to get all of us through these tough times, grow our economy, and unleash the United Kingdom’s potential.
A former neighbor of Truss’ parents, Priscilla and John Truss, told The Times that Priscilla Truss backed her daughter despite their disparate political viewpoints.
“She said she was quite torn. She’d agonised over whether to support her because she was her daughter, or not to support her because she was a Tory,’ he told The Times. ‘In the end, she decided that family ties should win out,” the neighbor said, according to the Times.
The Times reported that John Truss could not support the political views of his daughter.
“John is distraught at the policies his daughter is advocating in her bid to become PM,” the Times quoted a source at the university as saying.
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