After a tumultuous 45-day stint, Liz Truss quit as the prime minister of the UK on Thursday, making her Britain's shortest-serving premier. Her resignation comes right after interior minister Suella Braverman exited the Cabinet a day before. Braverman quit after admitting that she had breached the code of conduct by discussing public policy matters through private emails and also after launching a scathing attack on her boss.
In her email to Truss, Braverman said, “I have concerns about the direction of this government. Not only have we broken key pledges that were promised to our voters, but I have had serious concerns about this government’s commitment to honouring manifesto commitments, such as reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration.” This prepared the ground for Truss’ resignation, as UK’s former prime minister admitted to her failure to deliver on the promises made during her campaign as a Conservative leader, and that she had lost the faith of her party. Truss had replaced Boris Johnson as prime minister last month after a closely-fought leadership battle with former chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Poll Promises
Truss’ short stint has been full of debatable decisions that turned the financial markets against her. She fired her finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng and gave up on most of her policy programmes following a bond market rout.
At least five of her own MPs had publicly called for her removal. Subsequently, several polls had highlighted that both her and her party’s ratings had crashed. YouGov said on Tuesday that she became the most unpopular leader that it had ever tracked, within six weeks of assuming power. Some of her promises included tax cuts funded through larger borrowing, a sharp shift towards conservatism as far as social and cultural issues were concerned, and deregulation.
“I recognise though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party. This morning I met the chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady. We’ve agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week. This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security,” the former PM said.
Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss announced an economic package on September 23 that spooked the markets and threatened a political and economic crisis. As per the package, unfunded tax cuts to the tune of 45 billion pounds ($50 billion) hammered the value of pound and increased the government’s borrowing costs. It sent such shockwaves through the financial markets that the Bank of England was forced to intervene by putting pension funds at risk, in order to prevent a wider economic collapse. Kwarteng’s budget last month had proposed to abolish the 45-pence tax rate that was applicable to the top income tax payers from next April onwards. Her insistence on abolishing the tax was criticized by her own party members, at a time when England is struggling with soaring inflation.
Continuous Friction
After Kwarteng was sacked, his replacement, Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt, withdrew almost all of the tax cuts and scrapped Truss’ promise of no cuts in public spending. He said that the government would have to take some tough calls to save public money and also said that he would announce the government’s medium-term fiscal plan on October 31.
In 2019, fracking for shale gas was abandoned after opposition from environmentalists concerned about earth tremors as a result of the practice. However, after coming to power last month, Truss’ government ended the ban in order to tackle rising energy costs. Opposition’s call for a vote over the withdrawal of the ban was defeated by 326 votes to 230, which had given some respite to the struggling Truss government. Truss was UK’s fourth prime minister in six years. UK’s torturous exit from the European Union followed by the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in producing one of the most turbulent eras in the last 50 years of British politics. Rishi Sunak, Jeremy Hunt, and defence secretary Ben Wallace, among others, could be in the running to replace her.
New Leader
Rishi Sunak, who lost out to Liz Truss last month, is a strong favourite to emerge as the new leader of the Conservative Party. However, certain party members wish to bring back Boris Johnson who had tendered a forced resignation back in July. Johnson did receive a strong mandate in the 2019 general election. Penny Mordaunt, the present leader of the House of Commons, is another possible contender.
