This afternoon Liz Truss has been confirmed as the new Prime Minister beating rival Rishi Sunak after a 3 month long election battle.

The result was announced by the chairman of the Conservative 1922 commitee, at the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre.

Local reactions to her appointment as the new Prime Minister followed shortly after the annoucement.

Wellington and Wiveliscombe MP Rebecca Pow has congratulated Liz Truss on becoming

Conservative Party leader and the country’s next Prime Minister.

Ms Pow said: “It is a great testament to our party that this is our third female Prime Minister, no other party has achieved this.

“It was a tough and comprehensive campaign run by both candidates and particular thanks must go to Rishi Sunak for the honourable and concerted campaign he ran.

“Now, as I said from the outset, we must all come together and unite behind the new Prime Minister and concentrate on the issues that really matter in this challenging time.

“My focus continues to be on Taunton Deane and ensuring the right support is in place to help both households and businesses to weather rising energy prices and the wider cost of living crisis.

“I am calling on our new Prime Minister to urgently give a clear indication of what more can be done in addition to supports already in place.’

Wellington Conservative Association chairman Marcus Barr said: “Liz Truss will be a brilliant leader for the party and I am sure that if Rishi Sunak had been the winner then he would have done an equally good job for us.

“But being Prime Minister is not just about the party, it is about running the country and helping people whatever their political beliefs are.

“There are a lot of important issues she is going to need to tackle very quickly to help people with energy bills and food prices going up and I am sure Liz Truss will show us she is up for challenge.”

Demanding immediate action to tackle the cost of living crisis, Liberal Democrat MP Richard Foord, who represents  the Hemyock, Culmstock, and Uffculme areas, has called on newly-elected Conservative leader Liz Truss to immediately freeze energy bills to protect local families and businesses from soaring prices.

Mr Foord said: “Liz Truss and the Conservatives have spent months failing to act on soaring energy bills, leaving local residents in despair and small businesses going to the wall.

“They have shown they are completely out of touch with people in the Westcountry who are struggling to get by.”

He said Liberal Democrats wanted to see next month’s energy price cap increase cancelled and grants introduced to give small businesses up to £50,000 towards their energy bills.

WEST Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger welcomed this afternoon’s announcement.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said: “I worked with Liz Truss when she was at the Foreign Office and I have always found her highly intelligent and hugely generous with her time and her advice.

“How she will shape up to the Prime Ministerial brief I have no idea.

“But what I do know is that it is vitally important that her policies protect those families in rural areas who are going to be hit hardest by the cost of living crisis - and that she understands how vulnerable those households are.

“I have already spoken to her on the issue of freezing energy prices and offering mortgage repayment relief as well as the importance of maintaining rural public transport and other services.

“She should also be aware, insofar as industrial centres such as Bridgwater are concerned, that these massive increases in energy costs are inevitably going to wipe out some businesses and lead to substantial job losses unless her Government can devise some way of softening the blow.”

Taunton Deane Liberal Democrat Parliamentary hopeful Gideon Amos said Prime Minister in waiting Liz Truss represented ‘more of the same’ from the Conservatives.

Mr Amos said she had ‘propped up Boris Johnson, defending everything he did’ while businesses in Taunton Deane had to close premises and families had been put under increasing debt.

He said: “Whatever is planned for next week, for many it is already too late.

“Real action and leadership is long, long overdue.

“We need the Conservatives out of Government. We need them to go now.”

Lizz Truss is expected to announce her plans to tackle rising energy bills and the soaring cost of food later in the week.