Few incoming Prime Ministers can have had such a range of challenges as Liz Truss when she takes the keys to Downing Street. Huge increases in energy costs and rising inflation have combined to place families under acute financial strain.

Ms Truss beat her rival Rishi Sunak with 81,326 votes to 60,399 to become the UK's third female prime minister.

Boris Johnson will depart No 10 on Tuesday and Ms Truss will fly to Balmoral to meet the Queen for the formal handover of power.

She will then begin work putting together a response to the energy crisis, with support promised within days.

Ms Truss thanked her “friend” Boris Johnson, who will depart No 10 on Tuesday before Ms Truss flies to Balmoral to meet the Queen for the formal handover of power.

“Boris, you got Brexit done, you crushed Jeremy Corbyn, you rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin.

“You were admired from Kyiv to Carlisle,” she told the QEII conference centre in Westminster.

Ms Truss will quickly begin work putting together a response to the energy crisis, with support promised within days.

So what is in the new Prime Minister's in-tray so far as Kent is concerned? Political Editor Paul Francis on what is in store for Boris Johnson’s successor.

Migration:

The inexorable rise in the numbers attempting to cross the English Channel from the French coastline is arguably among the top priorities for the new PM.

With a series of initiatives all failing to reduce the numbers, its recent flagship proposal to send would-be asylum seekers to Rwanda is no nearer getting off the ground than it was when the leadership contest got underway eight weeks ago.

The government's inability to come up with a successful scheme leaves it exposed to the charge that its claim that Brexit would give the UK control over its borders was not quite what it is cracked up to be.

The NHS:

Remember that pledge by Boris Johnson to build 40 new hospitals?

Plenty of people in Kent do and want to see the government flesh out some more detail on what could be in the offing.

Hospital chiefs are waiting impatiently for news on which option the government favours - leaving Conservative MPs in the county batting for the option that would serve their constituents best.

Social care:

While Truss remains committed to existing plans to support the NHS, future PM plans on diverting £13 billion earmarked for the NHS in order to catch up on delayed treatment after Covid on social care.

Nadra Ahmed, executive chairman at Medway-based National Care Association, speaks about what she would like Liz Truss to prioritise as far as social care is concerned as she moves into Number 10.

She said: "The first thing I'd like her to do is to take social care files from the bottom of the pile that she will have to the very top and start looking at that and fulfilling some of the promises that have been made by the Tory party and indeed some of the comments that’s she’s made in relation to how social care needs support.

"When we look at where the care home sector is staffing is an enormous problem. The fees are woefully inadequate.

"From being a county council that was very supportive of social care and actually investing quite heavily in it some years ago, we are now seeing the county council very average in their support for the local providers.

"I think that is a shame. We need to move that forward a bit more. There are levels of support, and I think the will is there, but it’s that commitment of the investment that they need to make, which is not there."

Housing:

There are acute political sensitivities around this issue as the government seeks to find a way that addresses the shortfall in affordable housing at the same time as protecting Kent’s countryside.

The ex-levelling up minister Michael Gove had pressed the pause button to consider whether the government had got it right in terms of building numbers.

Liz Truss did pledge to get rid of top down targets but suspicions remain that the government is perhaps more committed to allow development rather than curtail it.

The plan to introduce development zones where there is a presumption in favour of building has not gone down well in Tory shires.

It all could end up in a series of legal battles to stop developers trampling all over the Garden of England. The other side of the argument has led to the development of a movement known as "YIMBYISM" - yes, in my back yard - set up to press the case for more affordable homes.

Grammar schools: A new Conservative party leader represents one thing for many party members - a chance to press the case for the current ban on new selective schools to be lifted.

In Liz Truss, activists seem to have a leader who is sympathetic to the call.

An opportunity to insert a clause into an Education Bill could come early in the Parliamentary session.

The question then becomes whether Conservative MPs who favour lifting the ban are organised enough to get the numbers they need.

Expect to see Kent in the eye of this particular political storm.

Operation Brock: Events that led to prolonged periods of chaos and disruption at the Channel port of Dover ought to have the focused the minds of ministers on the fact that turning large sections of the M20 into a giant lorry park is not just a small inconvenience for a Kent.

Might the government be returning to the idea after other options have been exhausted?