Interim leader bids farewell to parliament, leaving fundamental ‘Brexit’ laws as legacy
Former Economy Secretary Rishi Sunak and current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will contest Boris Johnson’s succession to the head of the Conservative Party and the British government after five rounds of voting in which the parliamentary group’s deputies have the least voted candidates eliminated. They are now going to start a campaign to convince the members of their party. Voting closes on September 2 and the results will be announced three days later.
Sunak was the most voted candidate in all rounds and in the latter he added 137 supports, 19 more than he had received on Tuesday. Liz Truss has 113, up 27, and Mordaunt 105, 11 more than Tuesday. Conservative deputies elected the two candidates with the most experience in government and the most competence in matters affecting the economy.
The results were announced after the parliamentary faction fired Johnson with a standing ovation, 13 days after he forced his resignation. The interim leader has already suggested that in the future he will try, like his admired Disraeli and Chuchill, to return to the head of government. Theresa May, his predecessor, did not welcome his departure and stood up so as not to clash with his colleagues.
Polls by members of the Conservative Party put Penny Mordaunt as their favourite, 27%. Sunak and Truss had the same percentage, 13%. The YouGov firm, which counted 879 party members in its July 12-13 sample, confirmed that Mordaunt would win outright against all of its rivals. It also recorded that Truss would win, 59%-35%, over Rishi Sunak.
According to the latest YouGov polls, the Conservative Party would lose an election, with Labor getting 40% of the vote and the ‘Tories’ 29%. Rishi Sunak, 31%, is the only leadership candidate who respondents say would be a better ruler than Keir Starmer, the position leader, 30%. Liz Truss gets a 22% rating.
The two successor candidates clashed during the campaign over Sunak’s economic policies, which Truss has criticized for creating heavy fiscal pressure rather than cutting taxes to encourage growth. The former finance minister says that a tax cut policy would lead to an increase in inflation.
Boris Johnson’s interim government has taken advantage of the last legislative day in the House of Commons to finalize its consideration of the bill canceling parts of the Irish protocol that enabled the European Union’s withdrawal agreement. After a seven-hour debate and a vote on amendments, the bill will go to the House of Lords in September, expected in the autumn.
If the negotiations with the European Commission were the responsibility of Truss, who as interim foreign minister sponsored the debate on the bill in parliament, it was Rishi Sunak who drafted the Financial Markets bill. His successor, Nadhim Zahawi, was due to submit it to parliament for processing in the fall.
They are two fundamental projects of ‘Brexit’, Johnson’s legacy. The first seeks to resolve the consequences of its agreement with the EU in Northern Ireland, violating international law. The main problem is that the DUP’s union members are refusing to participate in Belfast’s shared autonomy, as long as customs controls between Britain and their region are not lifted.
The planned financial reform makes it easier to list shares on the stock exchanges; seeks to reduce insurers’ reserve capital requirements to free up resources for infrastructure construction; adopts EU regulations into national law for the simplest change: it opens the door to ‘stablecoins’, electronic money linked to tangible assets, as daily payment instruments: and it demands the promotion of the competitiveness of the City of London by central bank and the financial conduct supervisor, who now focuses on stability.
Source: La Verdad
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