New UK Prime Minister: Liz Truss wins Conservative Party leadership vote
Truss defeated rival Rishi Sunak by 81,326 votes to 60,399 among party members and will assume leadership on Tuesday, as Britons face a growing social and economic crisis.
She pledged action to address the crisis in a short victory speech at a conference center in London on Monday. Without providing details, Truss promised a “bold plan” to cut taxes and build economic growth, while “solving the energy crisis, solving our energy bills. people but also solves the long-term problems we have in terms of energy supply.”
Monday’s announcement ends weeks of intense campaigning during which Sunak, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister), accused the Foreign Secretary of risking a prolonged recession if she continued to cut taxes like promised.
Truss has been the leader for weeks, and the 47-year-old will now follow in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May to become Britain’s third female prime minister. Despite voting to remain in the European Union in 2016, she still sees herself as the preferred candidate by a majority of Brexiteers in her party.
Her win was smaller than expected, Conservatives backing both candidates are privately conceding. Many had predicted that her odds of winning would be greater than the 18 percentage points announced Monday afternoon.
As for her position as prime minister, this means that she cannot run stiffly against her MPs, who voted for Sunak outnumbered Truss in the parliamentary portion of this leadership contest. .
And Truss may find she has to align with more views from her party, which means accepting Sunak’s ideas to help Britons weather the cost-of-living crisis and approach. less aggressive in cutting taxes – especially corporate taxes.
Many private Conservative MPs worry that Truss’ today’s defeatism could cost them the next election and will leapfrog a surprisingly low win rate to incentivize the Prime Minister. next softened his economic stance.
The opposition Labor Party immediately rejected her argument, saying in a statement, “after years of serving in Tory’s cabinet, nod through the decisions that have plunged us into this mess. , Liz Truss simply has no answer to this crisis.”
Long political journey
But critics have accused her new-found hardline Brexit stance of a cunning ploy. They point to the fact that over the course of her adult life, Truss has grown, from being an anti-monarchy Liberal Democrat to the legalization of drugs in her youth. embodiment of today’s Conservative right.
Throughout his political career, especially during the leadership run, Truss has been compared to Thatcher, who, to many on the right, remains the benchmark for Conservative Party leaders. She was a hardline leader, cut taxes, headed unions and played a big role in ending the Cold War. Like Thatcher, Truss had relatively modest beginnings to rule a world dominated by men.
Since becoming an MP, Truss has gone from being the darling of Liberal Conservative leader David Cameron, always keen on his cause, to head of the Euroskeptic right.
Ahead of the Brexit referendum, Truss said she “remains supportive because I believe it is in the UK’s economic interests and means we can focus on important social and economic reform”. at home.”
Cabinet colleagues at the time said that she had never spoken out on any issue in favor of remaining in the EU, although there were plenty of opportunities to showcase her European skepticism. only me.
These days, Truss is happy to play against Brussels and claims that it was the EU that held the UK economy back.
A country in chaos
Analysts are skeptical that Truss’s tax cuts will do much to help people, especially after a decade of austerity. The Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent research group focused on public finances, said last month that leadership candidates, who promise tax cuts and smaller government spending, “need to be realize this is even larger than usual in public finance. . . ”
Johnson’s Ghost
Looming Truss’ new government will be the long shadow of Johnson, whose time in office has seen approval ratings and voter intent for the Conservative Party plummet. He left his job as prime minister less than three years after returning home with a huge election victory in 2019.
Johnson was forced to resign on July 7 after a series of scandals made his position no longer available. His downfall follows months of revelations about parties being held at 10 Downing Street while the country was under Covid lockdown restrictions. Johnson himself was fined by the police, making him the first prime minister in history to be found guilty of breaking the law while in office.
However, Johnson dismissed the “Partygate” scandal. It was only when Chris Pincher, his deputy director in charge of party discipline, was accused of sexually assaulting two men at a party, and Johnson delayed in resolving the matter, that the party his ultimately opposed him.
Even so, Johnson may still be a celebrity. It is more than likely he will return to his previous media career as a columnist and broadcaster, although the damage to his reputation in the office may have been. which means his appeal is limited compared to before he stepped foot in Downing Street.
Throughout the campaign, Truss was seen by most as Johnson’s constant candidate and enjoyed the support of many of his loyalists.
Although this support helped Truss in a leadership struggle with Conservative Party members who saw her rival Sunak as a traitor and valued tribal loyalty, it means she will forever be tied to Johnson’s legacy.
That could end up becoming a burden around her neck, as the specter of Johnson threatens to overshadow anything Truss can do to resolve the misery many Britons are about to face in the near future. this winter.
CNN’s Lauren Kent and Stephanie Halasz contributed to this report.