The Foreign Minister, Liz Truss, has the majority support of the party to succeed her and is preparing a government program focused on reducing taxes
Liz Truss has won the battle. Everything points to her appointment as UK Prime Minister on September 5. The verdict in favor of the foreign minister, 47, married with two daughters, is almost unanimous. Only her opponent in the Conservative primary, former Treasury incumbent Rishi Sunak, is believed to have enough of a hand among the party’s estimated 160,000 voting members. Former Indian banker, married and father of two daughters, he feels capable of causing a surprise and being chosen to replace Boris Johnson at number 10 Downing Street. This Saturday he received a strong endorsement from Michael Gove, Brexit mastermind and relentless ministerial reformer.
The gap between the two finalists narrowed by eight points this week, but Truss leads Sunak by 32 points in the latest YouGov poll of Tory affiliates. 57% of those interviewed stated that they had already voted. Conservative Home, a digital platform for the party’s grassroots, draws a similar conclusion from its most recent consultation. The “continuity” candidate, who is supported by the radical Eurosceptic factions and prominent deputies, is still in the lead with 60% support. Sunak advances behind with 28% and 9% declares themselves undecided.
Liz Truss will be appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on September 5 if she maintains her lead in the Conservative elections.
John Curtice, a professor of politics and opinion research expert, believes that only a “spectacular failure” by Truss in the final stage would cause the race to turn. He now himself sees Sunak with a 5% chance of victory. Interestingly, according to YouGov, the dethroned prime minister would be comfortably re-elected had he had the opportunity to compete with his two cabinet colleagues. In that scenario, 46% of the membership would vote for Johnson, 24% for Truss and 23% for Sunak.
Moving trucks were spotted in Downing Street days ago, coinciding with Johnson’s family vacation in Greece. The acting head of government has perhaps cleared the residence and the official office, but his influence in the militancy and his hook among voters of other parties will weigh on his successor. The Labor Party, with Keir Starmer at the helm, add 43% of support in voting intention, compared to 28% for the Conservatives, according to another online poll by the same firm published in ‘The Times’.
Truss has campaigned as the natural successor and loyal minister who would vote against the parliamentary committee investigating whether Johnson lied to the House of Commons about the pandemic parties, which precipitated his political downfall. The tax cut focuses her economic program in a context of inflation and energy uncertainty, which has led Gove to cry out this morning that “many have taken a vacation from reality.”
Stopping in Belfast, during the national tour of debates with conservative affiliates, Truss has promised to process “as soon as possible” the controversial and probably illegal Northern Ireland Protocol Bill. The proposal gives British ministers carte blanche to abolish sections of the European Union withdrawal agreement, which union leaders and rank and file disapprove of. The favorite candidate assured the small audience in Northern Ireland that she would not capitulate on the “fundamental issues” of protecting British sovereignty and identity in the territory, even though unilateral action by London risks multiplying legal disputes with Brussels and obstacles to a trade agreement with the United States.
Boris Johnson has taken advantage of his vacation in Greece to remove his properties from the official residence in London
Of greater urgency for the new Downing Street family will be the explosive combination of exorbitant energy charges and an inflation rate of 10.1%, which has not yet peaked. Rising interest rates and the start of a long recession projected by the Bank of England for the end of the year frame the context of the crisis that Johnson leaves behind. Truss is incessantly committed to reducing the tax burden on employees and companies as an engine for investment and economic growth. He had to go back on his comment to the ‘Financial Times’ that he does not like state “handouts” and now he does not rule out offering aid to the vulnerable and economically disadvantaged population.
The alternative, as a hundred managers and doctors from the state health network (NHS) warn in a letter, is the “risk of a public health emergency.” A rise of over 50% in electricity and gas bills is expected from October and NGOs warn that millions of families will fall into energy poverty. Without government help, they will have to choose between heating their food or their bedroom, with inevitable consequences for the mental and physical health of children and adults, according to experts. “The country is facing a humanitarian crisis,” warns Matthew Taylor, director of the NHS Confederation and coordinator of the letter sent to the conservative government.
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