'Insurgent' Truss Says She Wants to Turn UK Into ‘High Productivity Powerhouse’

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says she is "an insurgent" who will be striving to change things and make the United Kingdom stronger if she is elected UK prime minister.

Truss and ex-Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the last two candidates for the UK’s top job, face six weeks of campaigning and hustings before the wider Conservative membership votes on their new leader. The final result is expected at the start of September.

"I see myself as an insurgent because I want to change things," Truss told The Telegraph in a first newspaper interview since reaching the second phase of the leadership contest.

Truss remarked during the Friday-published interview that the United Kingdom has struggled with low growth for two decades and the situation was exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, and now by the Ukraine crisis.

"And this is a pivotal moment for our country. Do we continue with business as usual? Or do we do things differently, be bold?" Truss told The Telegraph, saying "I want to do things differently and be bold so that we become a high growth, high productivity powerhouse."

Former European Commission civil servant Francis Cole told Sputnik earlier this week that the United Kingdom will continue Boris Johnson's hawkish foreign policy on Russia under Truss if she is elected prime minister.

A YouGov poll published on Thursday showed that over 60% of UK Conservative Party members are prepared to vote for Truss, while her opponent Sunak is short of 40% of the votes.