Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak set to be confirmed as new Prime Minister

The new prime minister will officially be announced on Monday after the Conservative leadership campaign which lasted for five weeks was concluded.

Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak will be named as the new leader of the party before being formally appointed as prime minister by the Queen on Tuesday.

They will head to Balmoral for their audience with the monarch before flying back to Downing Street.

A busy in-tray will await them there, with calls for further measures to tackle the cost of living crisis.

It has widely been expected that Truss, currently the foreign secretary, will be the winner of the contest.

The SNP’s Westminster Ian Blackford claimed that both candidates are “committed to the race to the right” and imposing “damaging policies against our will”.

He also insisted that the plans put forward by both candidates in the contest do not do enough to tackle the crisis.

“Whether it is Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak who wins the keys to Downing Street, Scotland loses,” said Blackford.

“While people are in fear at the prospect of opening their bills as prices rocket, wondering how they will make ends meet, the Tories have been more focused on their own narrow self-interest.

“At a time when we need to see meaningful and targeted support to protect households, including cancelling the energy price cap rise, the reality is that the plans being put forward by both Truss and Sunak fail to barely scratch the surface of this crisis.”

Blackford argued that Scotland should become independent to protect people’s livelihoods.

He added: “Scotland wants a different future to the one being imposed under harmful Westminster control.

“The only way to escape the damage of Brexit, protect people’s livelihoods and deliver meaningful change is to become an independent country.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar suggested that whoever wins, it is just “Boris Johnson with neater hair”.

“Today, just 160,000 Tory members will inflict a new prime minister on our country,” he said.

“Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak? It doesn’t matter. It’s just more of the same. The same lies, deceit and failures.

“Whoever wins, it’s just Boris Johnson with neater hair, but without the jokes.

“Meanwhile families worry about how they will afford spiralling bills and sky-high energy costs.”

Sarwar said that the new prime minister must freeze energy prices and then call a general election.

He continued: “The cost of living crisis is the number one issue facing families today and the Tories have no answers.

“We won’t see the scale of change we need as long as this failing, out-of-touch Tory government is out of office

“The first thing the prime minister needs to do is freeze energy prices. The second thing they need to do is call a general election.