The new British Prime Minister faces difficult tasks.
(Photo: dpa)
London. Rishi Sunak becomes the new Prime Minister of Great Britain. Because no other candidate had at least 100 conservative parliamentarians as supporters by 3 p.m. Central European Time, Sunak automatically wins the race to succeed Liz Truss.
After ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Penny Mordaunt also withdrew her application. Sunak now also takes over the party leadership of the conservative Tories.
Sunak had already entered the race for the head of the Conservative Party in Great Britain against Liz Trussin in the summer. When the 42-year-old was asked about his economic policy plans at the time, he answered unusually openly: he would rather lose the race for Tory leadership than “win with a false promise”.
Now, three months later, he has won with the right predictions and is moving into 10 Downing Street as the new British Prime Minister. After the defeat by Truss, who recently resigned as Prime Minister, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered one of the best economic forecasts in recent years.
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It was a grim call of Cassandra, however: Sunak fairly accurately predicted that Truss’ risky tax plans would plunge the island kingdom into fiscal chaos.
Sunak becomes the youngest prime minister in history
The economist, who was trained at the elite universities of Oxford and Stanford, now has to sweep up the pieces of the disastrously failed “Trussonomics” himself. “I want to put our economy back in order, unite our party and do something for our country,” announced the Southampton-born son of an East African immigrant Indian doctor and pharmacist.
Sunak is not only Britain’s youngest prime minister, but also the first non-white and ethnic minority prime minister. He is also Britain’s third prime minister in just three months.
The fact that Sunak had the right nose for the economic risks of his predecessor gives him a small boost in confidence on the financial markets. During his time as Chancellor of the Exchequer from February 2020 under the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the former Goldman Sachs banker and hedge fund manager had made a name for himself through courageous financial aid during the pandemic and then as a solid financial politician: Corona aid of more than 300 billion Pound (345 billion euros) followed a tough austerity course with tax increases and spending discipline.
This earned him the dubious reputation of a “disguised socialist” among the Tories, who were obsessed with low taxes. For Sunak, solid state finances and not low taxes are the core of conservative economic policy. He sees himself as the “true heir” of Tory icon Margaret Thatcher.
Sentiment towards the Conservative Party is mostly bad.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Sunak will need the toughness of the “Iron Lady” if he wants to lead Britain out of the worst economic crisis in 50 years. Economic growth is stagnating and inflation is at ten percent. The budget still has a gap of around £40bn, despite the fact that Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has reversed almost all of the tax breaks promised by Truss.
Sunak therefore has no choice but to cut government spending – even though many public services, such as the NHS, are already underfunded.
While the new prime minister is considered a brilliant communicator, his sleek demeanor and penchant for expensive suits are met with suspicion by many Britons, raising doubts as to whether an elitist-looking head of government really understands their concerns about the soaring cost of living. Sunak tries to counteract the impression by letting himself be photographed casually with a hoodie instead of a tailor-made suit or by cheering on the Southampton Saints football club in the stadium on Saturday afternoon.
In-house tax problems
In addition, however, the wealthy Sunak is married to the billionaire daughter Akshata Murthy, whose father was a co-founder of the Indian IT group Infosys. Many Britons have not forgotten that Murthy did not pay tax on her foreign income for years, taking advantage of a tax loophole.
British Prime Minister Truss announces resignation
Many Tory members also have bad memories of the fact that Sunak’s resignation as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the summer played a major role in the downfall of Boris Johnson, who is still popular with the party’s grass roots.
Although the new British prime minister promoted Britain’s exit from the EU during the Brexit referendum, promising a “freer, fairer and more prosperous” kingdom, Europeans can hope for a more pragmatic course from London. In any case, in the still unresolved dispute over trade relations between the EU and Northern Ireland, the Ministry of Finance, headed by Sunak until the summer, had let it be known that it was interested in a quick solution in the interest of both parties.
More: Even ultra-conservative circles are reassessing Brexit – five lessons from the chaos in Great Britain