It is a virtual clash of politics and economics in Britain with PM Liz Truss having to resign within little more than a month due to bad economic policies.
Who will be the new PM?
The hot favourite is Rishi Sunak of Indian origin whom the bookies are betting on, clearly being a former chancellor helps. He had also warned that Truss’s fiscal policies will adversely impact economy.
Giving a close fight to Liz for the PM post, it seems as if Sunak was just waiting for Liz to fall on her own before he steps into the PM seat.
Truss being a true blue British and former trade secretary had pipped Rishi Sunak to the PM post but in her own words had failed to fulfil the expectations of the country on the economic front with markets thumbing down her financial measures.
Truss’s finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng’s billions of pounds of tax cut shattered the stability of the market which though Jeremy Hunt (who replaced Kwarteng) tried to salvage by scrapping all tax cuts, energy subsidies and promise of no public spending cuts, but by then it was too late.
Truss’s conservative party members were disenchanted with her economic decisions, and many withdrew their support and in no time, Liz Truss had to furnish her own resignation making her the first British Prime Minister with the shortest stint of 45 days.
She said that they had set out on the vision for “a low tax, high growth economy – that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit’’, to boost the economy in a country which had been held back for too long by low economic growth.”
“I was elected by the Conservative Party with a mandate to change this,” Truss said.
The fact that she was unable to do it and that her party colleagues did not support her, she demonstrated her grit by tendering her resignation.
While declaring her resignation she said that a leadership election will be completed in a week to ensure that the Conservatives remain on a path to deliver their fiscal plans and maintain the country’s economic stability and national security.
She was to remain as prime minister till her successor is chosen.
Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer has called in for an immediate general elections which are not due at the moment, stating that the Conservatives were ruling over utter chaos and the country’s reputation was clearly taking a battering.
The quick changes in Prime Ministers in Britain clearly puts question marks on its political stability. The factions within the Conservative party is clearly coming out in the open.
They have to very soon put their house in order and install a credible prime minister.
Interestingly even former PM Boris Johnson is now supposed to have thrown his hat into the ring.
With minimum 100 signatures being needed to be able to be contest for the PM post from 357 conservative law makers, a maximum of three candidates can be nominated. Conservative lawmakers will finally chose two of them and the party’s 172,000 members will decide between the two finalists in an online vote by Oct.28.
There are many others who could be looking for the hot seat besides Rishi Sunak, like Leader of House of Commons Penny Mordaunt, Defence Minister Ben Wallace, interior minister Suella Baverman who quit recently, trade minister Kemi Badenoch.
There are conservatives who want Johnson back and many are against Rishi primarily because he led to resignations against Boris leading to his fall.
However political pundits feel that Johnson could rally a number of Conservative MPs including Sunak, in his support, bringing everyone together, in a bid to come back again as the Prime Minister on Britain primarily pitching himself as the only candidate who may be able to take on opposition Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer in the general elections.
He is already supposed to be on the job but it will all depend on how much support he is able to garner and if he is able to actually bring Sunak ( sacrificing his Prime Ministerial ambitions) on board. That seems unlikely.
As of now Sunak clearly is in the lead. But then there is no final word in politics.
Mr Johnson is said to be shoring up alliances by insisting he is the only candidate who can win an election against Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer.
| Posted by Sameer Khan | 
