Yet Another PM

In our last edition, I wrote about our new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, and now I am writing once again about her successor, Rishi Sunak. So what happened and who is Rishi Sunak?

Over the summer, Rishi Sunak ran against Liz Truss in the Tory leadership election to replace Boris Johnson and lost to her in September. But Liz Truss resigned just six weeks later, making her the shortest serving Prime Minister. So a new leadership contest began. Sunak gained momentum and was the first to gain the 100 nominations needed. He was up against Penny Mordaunt and Boris Johnson but both pulled out, making him leader of the Conservative Party on the 24th of October, after one of the shortest leadership elections, lasting just four days.

During the Summer leadership contest, Sunak predicted the financial problems under Truss, claiming her plan to borrow money during an inflation crisis was a “fairy tale ” that would plunge the economy into chaos. This was certainly true and it resulted in massive Uturns on key sections of her disastrous minibudget. She also sacked her Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, replacing him with Jeremy Hunt in a desperate attempt to restore her crumbling political authority. To make matters worse, Home Secretary Suella Braverman then resigned. Her resignation letter was incredibly targeted, emphasising that “ resignation is the right thing to do “ when “ a mistake “ is made. Liz Truss went from saying she is “ a fighter, not a quitter ” in PMQs to resigning the next day. Kiri Marshall

Rishi Sunak is the son of immigrants. His parents came to the UK from East Africa and are of Indian origin. He has become the UK’ s first British Asian Prime Minister. He was first elected as an MP in 2015 and was made Chancellor in February 2020 under Boris Johnson. He was in charge of financial Covid support, including the furlough scheme and ‘ eat out to help out’ .

The new Prime Minister enters No 10 with many problems facing him. One challenge is to fix the economy. He will need to decide his plans on the Energy Price Guarantee with household energy bills rising from £2,500 to more than £4,000 by next spring. He has guaranteed benefits, tax credits and pensions to rise in line with the recent inflation rate of 10.1%. As he was the previous Chancellor, the financial markets trust him which makes this job easier. Other challenges include where to make NHS savings, the numerous workers' strikes over pay, supporting Ukraine and the Northern Ireland Protocol. He also faces a divided party and nation, with the Labour Party calling for a General Election.