The election of the new British Conservative Party leader, who will automatically take over as Prime Minister to succeed Boris Johnson, on Monday (29) last week, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was the top candidate, entered into a complex economic and social scenario. .
Truss, 47, beat former finance minister Rishi Sunak by more than 30 points in the latest opinion polls among Conservative Party members who will decide the row that began in July when Johnson was forced to resign under pressure from several scandals.
Conservative activists have been voting by mail or online since early August to appoint their new leader in a process that ends Friday.
The winner will be announced next Monday, September 5, and will immediately lead the government to confront the economic crisis affecting the country, in the context of protests and strikes, with inflation above 10% and is expected to exceed that. 13% until the end of the year.
Eight Conservative candidates entered the race in July to succeed the controversial Johnson. Party lawmakers reduced the standoff to just two names, after two consecutive elimination votes.
But the final vote is up to the party members.
The UK will meet its new head of government within a week, elected by just 200,000 members of the Conservative Party, while the rest of the country is watching helplessly with relative interest.
Tax cuts or public assistance?
With Britons worried about the rising cost of living, in particular the 80% increase in their energy tariff ceiling from October, the candidates took part in many discussions and visited several cities during the campaign.
Sunak, 42, a former billionaire bank executive and grandson of Indian immigrants, has been a favorite of conservative lawmakers.
But in his rivalry for leadership in the party base with the foreign secretary, who reached the final stage by just eight votes, he is beginning to fall behind, accused by many of precipitating Johnson’s resignation with his resignation in July.
“In a party that has evolved into populism,[Liz Truss]has been able to present herself more authentically, naturally more than Rishi Sunak, who looks more like a globalized elite,” says Tim Bell, a political science professor at Queen Mary University. London.
Truss “can easily convey traditional conservative messages,” says John Curtis, a professor at the University of Strathclyde.
The campaign was dominated by one theme: how to respond to the economic and social crisis.
Truss promised immediate tax cuts, saying an impending recession was not inevitable and that post-Brexit changes to trade and fiscal rules inherited from the European Union would help spur growth.
Sunak advocated the need to maintain the tax increases he decided on even before leaving the Treasury and to provide public assistance to those who need it most. She accused her opponent of defending the “fairytale economy”.
If he confirms favoritism, Truss will be the third prime minister in the country’s history, after also conservatives Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) and Theresa May (2016-2019).
The next general election is due in January 2025 at the latest, and polls show the opposition Labor Party with a 13-point lead over the Conservative Party, which has been in power for 12 years.
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