What time is Rishi Sunak’s first speech as prime minister today?

The former chancellor is set to become the youngest PM in more than 200 years

Rishi Sunak is to address the nation for the first time after being appointed prime minister by KIng Charles III.

The former chancellor won the Tory leadership contest without a vote being cast after rivals Penny Mordaunt and Boris Johnson dropped out. He will replace Liz Truss in No 10 on Tuesday.

The handover of power will see Ms Truss, who quit last week after only 45 days in the top job, hold her final Cabinet meeting and give a farewell speech in Downing Street before formally tendering her resignation to Charles at Buckingham Palace.

Once she has left, it will be Mr Sunak's turn to see the King, who will ask him to form an administration.

The former chancellor will hope to assemble a top team that can return a measure of stability to both the Conservatives and the country.

He has been urged to avoid Ms Truss’s perceived error of appointing loyalists to key roles, with James Cleverly calling for the overhauled Cabinet to feature the best ministers.

The foreign secretary told Sky News: “We have got to have the first 15 on the pitch. I know that Rishi understands that.”

Mr Sunak will look to build a Cabinet of “all the talents” that will see the political return of the “adults”, according to reports.

He is expected to address the nation at 11.35am, before entering No 10 as the UK's first Hindu PM, the first of Asian heritage, and the youngest for more than 200 years at the age of 42.

Liz Truss will meet with King Charles before power is handed over to Rishi Sunak

While his team was remaining tight-lipped about the possible make-up of the team, his long-time backers Dominic Raab, the former justice secretary, Commons Treasury Committee chair Mel Stride and ex-chief whip Mark Harper were tipped to be in it.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who was brought in to steady Ms Truss's ailing government and has been working towards a highly anticipated Halloween fiscal statement, is widely expected to keep the keys to No 11 to try to stabilise the jittery markets.

Ms Mordaunt, who bowed out of the race to hand Mr Sunak a spectacular political comeback as she failed to get the 100 nominations from Tory MPs, is expected to get some kind of promotion - with some speculating that she could replace Mr Cleverly as foreign secretary.

Fewer than half of Britons think Rishi Sunak will be a good PM – but that’s still better than his defeated rivals’ ratings, according to this chart by Statista (The Independent/Statista)

Mr Sunak ruled out an early general election demanded by opposition parties as the Tories move onto their third prime minister on the mandate won by Mr Johnson in 2019.

Mr Harper told BBC Two's Newsnight: “He commands the majority support in the House of Commons and that's the basis on which he is entitled to be prime minister and he will govern and deliver the 2019 manifesto.”

He conceded that “of course you have to respond to the challenges you face” when it was put to him that Mr Sunak's talk of the “profound economic challenge” and Mr Hunt's warning of “eye-wateringly difficult” decisions on tax and spending signalled a shift away from Mr Johnson's 2019 promise of an end to austerity.

Additional reporting by PA