Liz Truss has been elected the new Tory leader after comfortably defeating her rival, Rishi Sunak.
The foreign secretary received 81,326 votes from Conservative members - 57 per cent - compared to 60,399 (43 per cent) for the former chancellor.
It means Truss will succeed Boris Johnson as the UK’s new prime minister.
However, she will not officially take over until tomorrow, following an audience with the Queen at Balmoral.
She is expected to address the nation from the steps of Number 10 when she returns to London tomorrow afternoon, after which she will put the finishing touches to her first cabinet.
Loyalists Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries are expected to retain their seats around the cabinet table as a reward for their support throughout the campaign.
Other notable appointments will include Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor, Therese Coffey as health secretary and James Cleverly as foreign secretary.
Top of Truss’s in-tray will be tackling the cost of living crisis, with the new PM reportedly set to announce a freeze in energy prices.
However, she will also need to deal with soaring inflation, a wave of strike action, the ongoing aftermath of Covid, the war in Ukraine, the Northern Ireland Protocol and calls for a second referendum on Scottish independence.
Truss will chair her first cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning, before she faces Keir Starmer at prime minister’s questions at midday.
In her victory speech, Truss vowed to lead the Tories to a “great victory” at the next election, which she said would not be until 2024.
“I campaigned as a Conservative and I will govern as a Conservative,” Truss said. “We need to deliver over the next two years.”
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “Liz Truss offers more of the same old failed Tory ideas that got us in this mess.
“During this leadership campaign, she had more to say about cutting tax for huge corporations than what she is going to do about the cost-of-living crisis affecting every household.
“She must now stop delaying and get on the side of working people, back Labour’s plan to ensure no one would pay a penny more on their energy bill this winter, and fully fund it with a windfall tax on oil and gas companies.”
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said: “Under Liz Truss, we’re set to see more of the same as under Boris Johnson.
“From the cost of living emergency to the NHS crisis, the Conservatives have shown they don’t care, have no plan and have failed our country.”