The Leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party in the United Kingdom is the elected head and most senior politician of the governing body of the Conservative Party. To date, two of the party’s leaders have been women: Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May. The post is held by Boris Johnson, elected 2019 as May's successor.
The name Conservative was first used as a description of the party by John Wilson Croker writing in the Quarterly Review in 1830.
Photograph: Ben Stansall/PA Liz Truss has been elected as the new leader of the Conservative party and will be named as the next prime minister on Tuesday after she meets the Queen in Balmoral. Here is a chronological look at her rise to power.