Rishi Sunak has come to power as the youngest British Prime Minister in decades. Despite making history at the United Kingdom’s top job, little is known about his stances on major economic and foreign policy issues. Mint analyzes Sunak’s views on various issues.
British economic crisis
The UK is facing a slow-burning economic crisis that has gripped the country since the global financial crisis in 2008. Economic growth, productivity and wage growth have stalled in the West’s third-largest economy.
Sunak’s policies aim to target both taxes and innovation. Later, Sunak has committed to increasing public spending on research and development to £20 billion by 2024-25. He will also focus on establishing a task force on science, facilitating processes for obtaining research grants, and creating a cross-government approach to science.
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He also hopes to cut taxes and make the UK a favorable place for business investment. Sunak will try to reduce income tax from 20% to 16% by the end of the next parliament. This would mean the biggest cut in income tax in 30 years.
They will also aim to improve capital allowances, reduce taxes for investing companies, and encourage investment.
China
Sunak has taken a tough stand on China. He has committed to the closure of Confucian institutions in the UK. These institutions are funded by the Chinese government and are seen as important tools to promote Chinese soft power to the world. These institutions have been accused of spying, monitoring Chinese students abroad, and acting as a foreign branch of the Communist Party of China.
He has also backed an international coalition to defend against Chinese cybercrimes and vowed to improve the ability of British intelligence to stop Chinese industrial espionage. He also supported preventing the acquisition of important British assets by Chinese firms. He has raised the issue of artificially changing the value of its currency to promote trade competition and exports with China.
He has also been deeply critical of Chinese crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and alleged human rights violations of Uighurs in Xinjiang.
energy crisis
Sunak’s premiership will likely be made or broken by his response to the ravages of the energy crisis in Europe. Household energy bills are skyrocketing and inflation has eroded the standard of living.
He has called for the removal of value-added taxes on energy bills to reduce the burden on households. In addition to the energy price cap, he will also introduce a temporary and targeted tax cut to help households. They will also have to decide on how to secure pensioners from rising inflation.
Sunak has supported the Conservative Party’s manifesto to ban fracking. He has also abandoned Liz Truss’s energy policy by refusing to back onshore wind generation.
immigration
Sunak has a 10-point plan on immigration. He wants to create an annual limit set by Parliament on the number of refugees accepted each year. He has committed to establishing a task force to track and combat illegal immigration in the UK. He also supported the government’s controversial policy of deporting illegal immigrants to Rwanda. He would also support increased immigration enforcement and raids. He wants to force the French government to assist Britain in stopping boats carrying illegal immigrants from France from leaving France. Failed asylum seekers and criminals will be sent back home.
India
India will likely continue to be the focal point of UK foreign policy in Asia. After Brexit, Boris Johnson kept an “inclination” towards Asia and the main focus of his diplomatic outreach was India. This is likely to continue, not least because of Sunak’s own Indian heritage.
Headlines in the coming weeks will be the India-UK Free Trade Agreement. Negotiations are reportedly at a standstill in the UK on some key issues including business migration. Sunak is understood to be in favor of staying with India, but his elected Home Secretary Suella Braverman has taken a dim view of the longer stay of Indian expatriates in the UK. This will likely lead to tension in the relationship.
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