Last Tuesday, British Prime Minister Liz Truss was moving into Downing Street and puzzling over how to help people pay their soaring gas bills. Two days later, she stepped out of her new home to pay tribute to a revered queen, Elizabeth II, and tell the country that Britain’s new king would henceforth be known as Charles III.
Anointed by the queen in the last act of her 70-year reign, Truss took over a government facing an economic emergency. But those problems have been all but eclipsed by the queen’s death, an epochal event that has put Parliament on hold, moved the spotlight from the cost-of-living crisis to a monarch’s legacy, and handed Truss, 47, an unexpected new job as the government’s chief mourner.
It’s a delicate assignment, one that could elevate Truss’ stature internationally but also trip her up at home. The crosscurrents were evident Monday, when Downing Street walked back a news report that she would be joining King Charles on a mourning tour of the four nations of the United Kingdom.