Only 4% of Britons say they are ‘very pleased’ to see Liz Truss become the new prime minister, according to a YouGov poll

Britons do not appear particularly enthusiastic about Foreign Secretary Liz Truss taking over as the new prime minister, a YouGov poll published on Monday suggests. Around half of the people in the UK say they are ‘disappointed’, with one-third ‘very disappointed’.

Only 4% of the respondents say they are ‘very pleased’ to have Truss move in to 10 Downing Street, and another 18% say they are ‘fairly pleased’.

Most people in the UK (67%) appear skeptical about Truss’ ability to tackle the rising cost of living – the top issue among Britons, according to another new YouGov poll. Almost 40% of the respondents say they have ‘no confidence’ with the incoming prime minister’s ability to deal with this key matter.

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Truss beat her rival, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, in the Conservative leadership election. She was supported by 81,326 Tories, while Sunak was backed by 60,399. Her support among Conservative voters also appears to be far from universal, according to YouGov.

Only four in ten Conservative voters say they are pleased with her victory, and around a third of them have confidence in her ability to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. More than half (54%) do not have much confidence in her skills in this regard, and around one-third are ‘disappointed’ that she will lead the government.

Around 40% of Britons believe Truss will be ‘about the same’ as the outgoing prime minister, Boris Johnson; 27% expect her performance in the role to be worse, while 14% believe she will be better.

Truss is the third woman to become the nation’s prime minister, after Cold War-era political giant Margaret Thatcher and Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May. She will officially take office on Tuesday after a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.