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Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss: Who will be the UK's next prime minister?

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak

The final two candidates in the race to become the UK's next prime minister have gone head-to-head in a TV debate.

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss were chosen after voting by Conservative Members of Parliament narrowed down the leadership race.

Around 160,000 members of the Conservative party now have to decide who will replace the current leader Boris Johnson, and the TV debate may help them make their minds up.

The winner will be announced by 5 September, after Parliament returns from their summer break.

Who is Liz Truss?

Image source, Reuters

Liz Truss is the current foreign secretary - that means she represents the UK government's relations abroad.

She was first elected in 2010 as MP for South West Norfolk.

She has held different cabinet positions and has the most experience as a government minister out of the final two candidates.

Ms Truss was involved in negotiating trade deals for the UK after Brexit when she was international trade secretary.

However, during the EU referendum, she campaigned for the Remain side, writing that Brexit would be "a triple tragedy - more rules, more forms and more delays when selling to the EU".

However, she later changed her mind, arguing that Brexit provided an opportunity to "shake up the way things work".

As part of her campaign Ms Truss promised to cut the taxes that people have to pay and to do more to support businesses - she says that will help the cost of living crisis and help UK economy grow.

She also said she would cut energy bills by suspending what is known as the "green levy" - part of the bill that pays for social and environmental projects.

Who is Rishi Sunak?

Image source, Reuters

Rishi Sunak became an MP in 2015 - for the North Yorkshire constituency of Richmond.

He was famously Chancellor of the Exchequer, the person in charge of the country's money from February 2020 until two weeks ago.

Mr Sunak was one of the first ministers to quit their job earlier this month, in protest over Boris Johnson's leadership.

He was Chancellor during the coronavirus pandemic, dealing with a time of emergency and spending large amounts of money to keep the economy going during the national lockdowns.

Image source, Getty Images

During the campaign to be leader, Mr Sunak didn't support cutting taxes at this time, as he says the country needs more money coming in after the Covid pandemic but said it was a matter of "when not if".

He also faced criticism earlier this year after it was revealed his wife was not paying tax on some of her earnings and, like Boris Johnson, he was also fined by police over lockdown parties in Downing Street.

What happens next?

Media caption,

UK children explain what they want from from the UK's next leader

Now that Conservative MPs have decide their two final candidates, voting will now be open to Conservative Party members - that's everyone who has signed up to be official supporters of the party, including members of the public - to pick who they want to replace Boris Johnson.

Both candidates will now spend the next few weeks travelling around the country to meet with party members and convince them to pick them as the next party leader and prime minister.

There are thought to be around 160,000 Conservative Party members who will have the summer to make their choice by postal vote.

The votes will then be counted and the new prime minister is expected to be announced by 5 September.