Margaret Beckett

Liz Truss once Played Margaret Thatcher in a school Play - But now she has Her sights set on becoming Prime Minister in Real Life .

After Two rounds of voting, she is one of five candidates left in The Race to succeed Boris Johnson as Conservative Party Leader - and Prime Minister .

Last Year , at the Age Of 46, Liz Truss became the UK's second female Foreign Secretary - Following a trail blazed previously only by Labour's Margaret Beckett 15 years ago.

In a relatively Short Time in Parliament, she has held a wide variety of posts, dealing with high-profile domestic and international issues.

Born in Oxford in 1975, Ms Truss describes Her parents, a mathematics professor and a nurse, as " left-wing".

It was not a characteristic inherited by their daughter.

She moved to Paisley, in Scotland, aged four, and, in 1983 - in a hint of Her future political proclivities - Played the part of Margaret Thatcher in a school dramatic production.

The Family then decamped to Leeds, where she attended a state Secondary School .

Her Younger Brother said The Family enjoyed playing board games such as Cluedo and Monopoly, But that the young Liz Truss hated losing and would often disappear rather than risk not winning.

Mrs Truss went on to Oxford University, where she read philosophy, politics and economics and was active in student politics, initially for the Liberal Democrats and later for the Conservatives.

Afterwards she worked as an accountant for Shell, and Cable & Wireless, But Her heart was set on Westminster.

She was the Tory candidate for Hemsworth and Calder Valley in the 2001 and 2005 general elections, failing to win either seat. But she was elected as a councillor in Greenwich, south-east London, in 2006, from 2008 also working as deputy director of the right-of-centre Reform Think Tank .

Part of Conservative Leader David Cameron's " A-list" of priority candidates, Ms Truss was finally elected MP for the safe Tory seat of South West Norfolk in 2010, with a 13,140-vote majority.

While in Parliament she co-authored a book called Britannia Unchained, which recommended stripping back state regulation to boost the UK's position in The World , marking Her out as a prominent advocate of Free Market policies on the Tory benches.

In 2012, just over Two years after becoming an MP, she entered government as an Education Minister .

She clashed with Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg over schools reform, But Mr Cameron promoted Her to The Cabinet in 2014, as environment Secretary .

At the 2015 Conservative conference, Ms Truss was mocked for giving a speech including an But this did not impede Her progress.

During the EU referendum, she campaigned for the Remain side, 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".

In 2016, she became justice Secretary under Theresa May , The Following year Moving On to become chief Secretary to the Treasury, a position at The Heart of the government's economic programme.

After Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in 2019, Ms Truss was moved to International Trade Secretary - a job which means meeting political and business leaders to promote UK PLC.

As Foreign Secretary she sought to solve the knotty problem of the Northern Ireland Protocol, by scrapping parts of a post-Brexit EU-UK Deal - a move the EU fiercely criticised.

She secured the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori from Iran - Two British Iranian nationals who had both been arrested and detained in Iran .

When Russia invaded Ukraine she took a hard line, insisting all Russian forces should be driven from the country.

She faced criticism after expressing support for individuals from the UK who might want to go to Ukraine to Fight .

Source of news: bbc.com