Johnson's replacement will have to deal with severe energy crisis
The British Conservative Party is finalising preparations to announce on Monday the new leader of the party, Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak, who will replace Boris Johnson as prime minister of the United Kingdom in the midst of the serious energy crisis.
The party will announce the winner of its internal leadership contest at around 11.30 GMT tomorrow, who will take over as chief executive on Tuesday, while there is a question mark over the measures it will take to tackle the exponential increase - of 80% - in the price of energy bills from October.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is the media favourite to take over the Tory leadership, after party members - some 160,000 - voted in recent weeks by traditional mail or electronically.
Although former finance minister Rishi Sunak received the most support among Tory MPs in the first phase of the internal process, Truss is a popular figure among the grassroots, partly because of his insistence on cutting taxes, a traditional Tory pledge.
Once the winner is announced, Johnson and the new leader will travel to Balmoral Castle in Scotland for audiences with Queen Elizabeth II.
Johnson will first formally tender his resignation to the 96-year-old Queen, while the Queen will then call either Truss or Sunak (depending on who wins tomorrow) to ask him to form a government.
Once this constitutional act has been completed, the new prime minister will travel to London to appoint his or her ministers.
The premier will take office amid public concern over rising energy prices, after the sector's regulator, Ofgem, announced in August that the maximum price that energy companies will be able to charge households per year from 1 October has been set at 3,549 pounds (4,202 euros), compared to the current price of 1,971 pounds (2,325 euros), a rise of 80%.
Opposition parties have called on both Tory candidates to unveil the measures they will take.
However, Truss - the front-runner - declined to make specific announcements, but said she would act within a week of taking office. "I believe we face very serious challenges. I will act within a week, (but) I can't say what I will do," she said.
"If I am elected prime minister, within a week I will ensure that there is an announcement about how we are going to deal with the problem of energy bills and long-term supply," she told the BBC.
"What I want to do is reassure people that I will act, if I am elected prime minister, within a week," she insisted.
Sunak also told the BBC that, if he is prime minister, he will help all households, but the first to receive direct financial assistance will be those on the lowest incomes and pensioners.
Labour MP Emily Thornberry, in the British opposition, called it "extraordinary" that neither contender would reveal concrete measures.
Those affected will be not only those on "the lowest incomes" but also those on "middle incomes", and "we are going to have the majority of the country in fuel poverty unless something is done", she told the BBC.
The energy hike is a response to rising wholesale gas prices globally as post-pandemic economies revive and also because of the war in Ukraine.
Rising energy prices are expected to push up Britain's year-on-year inflation, which stands at 10.1% but could reach 13% or more by the end of the year.
The rising cost of living has led many sectors to go on strike to demand higher wages.
The UK faced what the media is already calling the "summer of discontent" with a series of strikes, including those of the British postal service, dockers and railway workers.
