Liz Truss announced as new Conservative Party leader - and Britain's next Prime Minister

Sir Graham Brady made the announcement at Queen Elizabeth II Centre auditorium in Westminster at lunchtime today.

She received 81,326 of the votes, while competitor Rishi Sunak, the former Chancellor, received 60,399.

In her victory speech, Ms Truss – who was backed by Mansfield MP Coun Ben Bradley, Ashfield MP Lee Anderson and Bassetlaw MP Brendan Clarke-Smith in the final two – paid tribute to the other Tory leadership race candidates, particularly Mr Sunak.

She said the campaign was ‘hard-fought’ and showed ‘the depth and breadth of talent’ in the party.

She also thanked Boris Johnson for standing up to Vladimir Putin, getting Brexit done, rolling out the Covid vaccine and "crushing Jeremy Corbyn".

Tomorrow she will become prime minister when she visits the Queen in Balmoral for an invitation to form her UK government.

The new Tory leader is now under immediate pressure to announce a plan to tackle soaring energy costs.

It is expected that she will set out her plans later this week.

Leader of the House of Commons Mark Spencer, Sherwood MP, hailed the election as a ‘decisive result’ and pledged to rally behind her alongside the Party.

He said: “We must put our differences aside and move forward together as a party, a government and a nation as there is more that unites us than divides us.”

A spokesman for Mr Spencer added: “He is insistent the party will move swiftly behind the new Prime Minister as she puts forward her plans in the coming days to tackle the rise in the cost of living, and energy in particular, and believes she is a candidate wholly capable of leading this country through these difficult times.”

Mr Anderson, who switched his support to Ms Truss after his preferred candidate, Kemi Badenoch, was knocked out in the race to Number 10, said: “I welcome Ms Truss to her new role and hope she will refresh and unite the Party, so we can focus on delivering the people’s priorities.

“We have been away from Parliament for far too long over the summer, so I am glad we are back, so we can get on with getting energy bills down and tackling illegal crossings.

“With Ms Truss, we can return to proper Conservative values in Britain. I want the UK to be a low-taxation, high-productivity economy that looks after the people who work hard every day and are feeling the pinch with the cost-of-living crisis.

“We are paying for the failure of poor energy policies over decades and I believe Ms Truss is the best person to tackle this issue and put money back into people’s pockets.”

However, Coun Jason Zadrozny, Ashfield Council leader, said: “Let’s not pretend Ms Truss presents a fresh start for the Conservatives.

“Her first job will be to pretend she had nothing to do with the previous Government. This is despite her being in Boris’s gang. The same people who presided over untold corruption, failure and misery.

“She has been part of a Government that has been in power for 12 years.

“Ms Truss has a lot to do to prove she is not Boris Johnson with a wig and a bit of lipstick.

“People in Ashfield want her to start to deal with the cost of living crisis, freeze energy caps and start to get to grips with the cost of living crisis.”