London: After a grueling nationwide tour, over a dozen polls and three televised debates, Liz truss Britain appears set to take over as the next prime minister as members of the Conservative Party approach the close of voting on Friday.
The result of a summer long campaign pitting the foreign secretary against former chancellor Rishi sunki Will be announced before Prime Minister Boris on Monday johnson formally submits his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II the next day.
Postal and online voting by an estimated 200,000 Tory members began in early August, a month after Johnson’s resignation was announced, and ended at 5:00 p.m. (1600 GMT).
The Truss enjoys overwhelming support over Sunak in the voting of the members.
But the winner faces a missing political honeymoon after returning to 10 Downing Street after meeting the Queen in the Scottish Highlands.
With inflation rising to double digits as energy prices rocket on the back of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Britain is in the midst of its worst life-threatening crisis in generations.
According to surveys, millions say they face a painful choice between eating and heating up this winter, with bills rising 80 percent since October – and January onwards.
The truss has vowed tax cuts but they will do nothing to benefit the poorest.
For weeks, the Tory front-runner has been denying direct handouts, and went ahead with the final election on Wednesday, reiterating former US President George Bush’s promise of more taxes – which he soon broke.
But writing in Thursday’s edition of The Sun newspaper, Truss vowed this winter to “provide immediate assistance to ensure people do not face unaffordable fuel bills”.
“I firmly believe, in these dire times, we need to be radical,” he said, previewing his Thatcherite agenda of reform to bolster Johnson’s Brexit legacy.
challenge
Tory lawmakers turned on their Brexit hero Johnson after months of scandal, and backed Sunak as the more elected leader to take over the truss until the next general election in January 2025.
But the party’s rank and file has stalled on Truss’s right-wing platform, albeit a former Liberal Democrat who opposed Britain’s leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum.
“He is a better politician,” John Curtis, a professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, told AFP as Truss stuck to a simple script in the long, hot summer of campaigning.
Curtis said, “Sank has exhibited some of the qualities you might expect to see in a good minister. But Miss Truss has exhibited the qualities you need in a politician.”
However, whoever wins, recent polls by a wider electorate show that the Conservatives face a growing challenge to maintain their 12-year grip on power.
The Labor Party has benefited from attacking Johnson’s “zombie government” as the Conservatives have taken their time to elect a new leader despite the widespread crisis, which is rife with infighting.
The main opposition party now claims a double-digit lead over the Tories in opinion polls, as the economic landscape turns to the worst since Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979.
The result of a summer long campaign pitting the foreign secretary against former chancellor Rishi sunki Will be announced before Prime Minister Boris on Monday johnson formally submits his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II the next day.
Postal and online voting by an estimated 200,000 Tory members began in early August, a month after Johnson’s resignation was announced, and ended at 5:00 p.m. (1600 GMT).
The Truss enjoys overwhelming support over Sunak in the voting of the members.
But the winner faces a missing political honeymoon after returning to 10 Downing Street after meeting the Queen in the Scottish Highlands.
With inflation rising to double digits as energy prices rocket on the back of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Britain is in the midst of its worst life-threatening crisis in generations.
According to surveys, millions say they face a painful choice between eating and heating up this winter, with bills rising 80 percent since October – and January onwards.
The truss has vowed tax cuts but they will do nothing to benefit the poorest.
For weeks, the Tory front-runner has been denying direct handouts, and went ahead with the final election on Wednesday, reiterating former US President George Bush’s promise of more taxes – which he soon broke.
But writing in Thursday’s edition of The Sun newspaper, Truss vowed this winter to “provide immediate assistance to ensure people do not face unaffordable fuel bills”.
“I firmly believe, in these dire times, we need to be radical,” he said, previewing his Thatcherite agenda of reform to bolster Johnson’s Brexit legacy.
challenge
Tory lawmakers turned on their Brexit hero Johnson after months of scandal, and backed Sunak as the more elected leader to take over the truss until the next general election in January 2025.
But the party’s rank and file has stalled on Truss’s right-wing platform, albeit a former Liberal Democrat who opposed Britain’s leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum.
“He is a better politician,” John Curtis, a professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, told AFP as Truss stuck to a simple script in the long, hot summer of campaigning.
Curtis said, “Sank has exhibited some of the qualities you might expect to see in a good minister. But Miss Truss has exhibited the qualities you need in a politician.”
However, whoever wins, recent polls by a wider electorate show that the Conservatives face a growing challenge to maintain their 12-year grip on power.
The Labor Party has benefited from attacking Johnson’s “zombie government” as the Conservatives have taken their time to elect a new leader despite the widespread crisis, which is rife with infighting.
The main opposition party now claims a double-digit lead over the Tories in opinion polls, as the economic landscape turns to the worst since Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979.