Liz Truss is expected to take office today.
President Paul Kagame has joined other leaders across the globe to congratulate the newly elected UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss on her ascent to office. The Head of State tweeted his congratulatory message on Tuesday and added that Rwanda looks forward to working with her when she assumes office at 10 Downing Street.
“Congratulations @trussliz on your election as Prime Minister of the UK. We look forward to further strengthening the existing close ties between the UK and Rwanda and wish you success.” President Kagame tweeted.
Truss, 47, who prior to being elected was the Foreign Secretary, will become the next Prime Minister of Britain, taking over from Boris Johnson who has stepped down from the position at a time of economic peril and political upheaval in the United Kingdom.
She becomes the fourth Conservative Prime Minister in six years after defeating rival Rishi Sunak in a vote of Conservative Party members by a tighter margin than expected, garnering winning by 81,326 votes against Sunak’s 60,399 votes, with most of her lawmakers initially backing her rival. Truss promised to take “bold action” to get the country through the tough times, including cutting taxes despite a warning that that would exacerbate Britain’s inflation rate, at 10.1% already the highest of any leading economy.
During the campaign phase, Truss told media in July that she would bring forward a strengthened UK Bill of Rights to provide a “sound legal basis” to tackle illegal migration, adding that she would back the UK-Rwanda Immigration Partnership, which seeks to relocate illegal immigrants to Rwanda for processing.
Truss said she would support and extend the UK-Rwanda partnership as one of the ways to increase the border force to make sure that the country has proper protection to stop illegal immigrants at the English Channel.
“The Rwanda policy is the right policy. I’m determined to see it through to full implementation, as well as exploring other countries that we can work on similar partnerships with. It’s the right thing to do,” Truss told the media.
“I’m also determined to make sure that we have the right level of forces at our border. I’m going to increase the border force to make sure that we have the proper protection in place directly at the border,” she added.
UK and Rwanda maintain that they are taking bold steps to address the imbalance in global opportunities which drives illegal migration while dismantling the incentive structures which empower criminal gangs and endanger innocent lives.
Since the illegal immigrant’s crisis started four years ago, August this year marked the highest monthly influx of migrants to the UK, according to UK Ministry of Defence data.
Truss will travel to Scotland on Tuesday to be appointed by Queen Elizabeth II and then enter 10 Downing Street as the third woman to serve as British prime minister.
