UK Prime Minister: Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak will be new PM

Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak will be the UK's next prime minister.

The UK's next prime minister will be announced today - will it be Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak?

The two candidates were chosen after seven weeks of voting by around 160,000 members of the Conservative party in a big leadership race.

The results of the vote will decide who will take over from Boris Johnson as the new leader of the Conservative Party and the next prime minister.

The winner will be announced at 12:30pm and they will start their new role tomorrow.

Former PM Boris meets the Queen when he was appointed as PM in July 2019

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to give a goodbye speech when he leaves on Tuesday, before handing over to the new PM.

Usually when a new prime minister is announced, they meet with the Queen at Buckingham Palace, however this year will be a bit different.

The new PM will travel to Balmoral Castle in Scotland to be officially appointed by the Queen.

This is because the Queen has been suffering from 'mobility issues' recently - meaning she has been struggling to move about as much - and the decision was made to prevent the need for any last-minute changes.

Take a look below to find out more about Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak...

Who is Liz Truss?

Liz Truss is the current foreign secretary - that means she represents the UK government's relations abroad.

She was first elected in 2010 as MP for South West Norfolk.

She has held different cabinet positions and has the most experience as a government minister out of the final two candidates.

Ms Truss was involved in negotiating trade deals for the UK after Brexit when she was international trade secretary.

However, during the EU referendum, she campaigned for the Remain side, writing 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".

As part of her campaign Ms Truss promised to cut the taxes that people have to pay and to do more to support businesses - she says that will help the cost of living crisis and help UK economy grow.

She also said she would cut energy bills by suspending what is known as the "green levy" - part of the bill that pays for social and environmental projects.

Who is Rishi Sunak?

Rishi Sunak became an MP in 2015 - for the North Yorkshire constituency of Richmond.

He was famously Chancellor of the Exchequer, the person in charge of the country's money from February 2020 until two weeks ago.

Mr Sunak was one of the first ministers to quit their job earlier this month, in protest over Boris Johnson's leadership.

He was Chancellor during the coronavirus pandemic, dealing with a time of emergency and spending large amounts of money to keep the economy going during the national lockdowns.

During the campaign to be leader, Mr Sunak didn't support cutting taxes at this time, as he says the country needs more money coming in after the Covid pandemic but said it was a matter of "when not if".

He also faced criticism earlier this year after it was revealed his wife was not paying tax on some of her earnings and, like Boris Johnson, he was also fined by police over lockdown parties in Downing Street.