Analysis: Britain’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, is a political shape-shifter. Now she’s set for her toughest transformation yet

Even during her time as a Liberal Democrat, her peers questioned her sincerity and spotted traits that they say they still see in her today. “I honestly think she was playing to the gallery back then, whether she was talking about decriminalizing drugs or abolishing the monarchy,” Neil Fawcett, a Liberal Democrat councilor who campaigned with Truss in the 1990s, told CNN. “I think she is someone who plays to the gallery with whatever audience she is talking to, and I genuinely don’t know if she ever believes anything she says, then or now.”Truss has certainly continued to capture the attention of her audience. Since joining the Conservatives and becoming a lawmaker, she has fervently supported almost every conceivable ideology. She served loyally under three prime ministers in several different cabinet jobs, most recently as foreign secretary.Most notably, she supported remaining in the European Union in the UK’s referendum in 2016. At the time, Truss tweeted that she was backing those who wanted to remain in the bloc because “it is in Britain’s economic interest and means we can focus on vital economic and social reform at home.” Truss now backs Brexit, saying that her fears before the referendum that it could cause “disruption” were mistaken. For her detractors, it is more complicated. During this leadership contest those who have supported her rivals feel they have been unfairly maligned simply for disputing that Truss should be handed the keys to Downing Street. When it comes to running the country, this could be a problem for Truss. She had the support of fewer MPs than her rival Rishi Sunak during the early stages of the contest and the bad blood between the two camps has worsened over time. And for all Truss’ determination and single-mindedness, she takes over a party torn apart by infighting and suffering in the polls during a domestic crisis. So she may find her key objective — making her party electable at the next general election after so many years in power — too hard a task to achieve.