Liz Truss announces PM bid as 11 stand to replace Boris Johnson

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has today launched her bid to become the next prime minister.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Truss said she would "start cutting taxes from day one" to "help people deal with the cost-of-living".

Her declaration makes Truss the eleventh candidate to enter the race to Number 10. Many others have also made tax cuts part of their pitch.

It is just four days since Johnson made his podium speech on Downing Street and said he would step down from office.

And today the powerful 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs will meet to determine how the leadership contest will be run, including setting out the timetable.

MPs will first narrow the field to two through before putting these to the wider Conservative party.

The first contender to declare was former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, and on Sunday the Rehman Chishti, who is newly-appointed to the Foreign Office, announced his candidacy.

Other rivals include former health secretaries Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt, ex-equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, the Attorney General Suella Braverman and the new Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi.

Penny Mordaunt, the Trade Minister, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and prominent backbencher Tom Tugendhat are also running.

All will be required to secure a minimum level of confirmed supports to enter the first round of voting. That level will be determined by the 1922 Committee. It is expected that nominations will close on Tuesday evening, with the two final contenders decided before Westminster recess begins on July 21.

Truss, who lived in Paisley as a girl, wrote: "I grew up in Leeds, at the heart of the Red Wall. I was educated at a comprehensive school in the city and went to primary school in Scotland. I got where I am today through working hard and focusing on results.

"My journey was possible through aspiration, ambition and enterprise. As prime minister, I will deliver a plan that revives those values and is rooted in them."