British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned, she lasted only five weeks in office, during which she lost two prime ministers, the support of the parliamentary group and the voters.
The UK has a new prime minister. Liz Truss only lasted 45 days and she resigned. This was the shortest term in recent history for a British Prime Minister prior to his announcement of his resignation. How did this happen?
Total failure
In five weeks, Truss lost two prime ministers, the support of the parliamentary faction and the voters. His approval rating is about 15%, lower than any British prime minister in modern history. Worse, his plan for swift Brexit-style reforms is being ignored, putting financial stability, the pension system, and the economy as a whole at risk.
Truss initially sought the support of the far-right parliamentary faction of the Conservative Party, which advocates a hard Brexit, complete deregulation of the economy, tax cuts and social spending.
Truss presented his economic plan this way – cutting taxes on the rich, canceling the planned increase in taxes on businesses, and putting money into the population in response to rising prices for electricity and heat.
Truss’s radical plan would cost almost a quarter of a trillion pounds, but neither he nor his finance minister, Quasi Kwarteng, said where the money would come from. They promised to tell by the end of November. Among those who invested personal and other people’s money in the British economy, panic began. The prospect of a country in debt with a quarter-trillion-pound budget hole spooked investors.
Truss initially dismissed all claims and responded with three-word slogans. Literally: “Growth, growth and growth.” Or: “We will, we will, we will.” Didn’t help. I had to make sacrifices. The same Finance Minister Kvarteng became the victim. Again, this did not help.
Economic problems
Britain currently experiences low labor productivity, the fastest inflation and the slowest growth of any competitor. Britain’s economic volume is still 0.2% lower than before covid, while in the eurozone it is 1.8% higher, and the US even recovered last winter.
Voters feel it. According to the Bank of England’s forecast, in the coming year, citizens will experience the biggest drop in living standards in the entire 60-year history of such calculations.
Now the Conservative Party is faced with the no-nonsense task of returning the country to the path of prosperity and social harmony. Simple recipes are gone. Tough decisions lie ahead.
According to calculations by the British think tank Resolution Foundation, the country is on the verge of the biggest tax increase since 1993, and this is not the end. To achieve the stated goals, tens of billions of pounds of spending on schools, hospitals, police, road repairs, affordable housing and social benefits will have to be cut.
Before Truss’s resignation, the new chancellor, Hunt, was scheduled to announce an urgent austerity plan on October 31. He had to tell who and where to cut back, eat less, drown more often . And even this unremarkable politician is now more popular than the self-confident Liz Truss, who promised everyone tax cuts and a brighter future.
Johnson back?
The Conservative Party may be out of power. The popularity of the Conservatives in recent weeks has fallen to record lows in the history of sociological research in Britain.
The leader of the opposition Labor Party, Cyrus Starmer, called for an immediate general election. This request was joined by the leaders of the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party.
Liz Truss said that within a week the Conservatives will hold an election for their new leader. Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to take part in the race for the leadership of the Conservative Party.
The fact that this time the Conservatives chose the leader in a terrible hurry (and under strong pressure from the Laborites, who have been trying to return to power for the past 12 years and now feel that there is their chance to do so), could play into Boris’ hands. . There is no need to wait for new faces and unexpected candidates for the position of party leader – everyone will be chosen from the same old clip, and this, of course, increases Johnson’s chances of winning.
According to the Times, Priti Patel has agreed to support Johnson’s candidacy, who throughout Johnson’s premiership led the Home Office in his government (as the Ministry of Internal Affairs is commonly called in Britain). After the scandalous resignation of his patron, he left his post, unwilling to work under Liz Truss, and returned to the back benches, once again becoming an ordinary member of parliament.
However, Patel is still a political heavyweight, and his support could significantly strengthen the position of any candidate for leadership.
However, at the moment, bookmakers do not believe in Boris’s victory: his chances of leading the Conservative Party and becoming the next prime minister are estimated at 18%. And although he is formally in the top three, it is significantly lower than current race favorite Rishi Sunak (50%) and Penny Mordaunt (31%), who are on the bookmakers’ lists between them.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.