King Charles III, who was at his private estate in Sandringham, on the east coast of England, will receive Sunak today to officially appoint him as the country’s third prime minister in two months.
“Now we need stability and unity,” Sunak said. In a brief speech outside his party headquarters, he added that the UK faces “a profound economic challenge”.
“My top priority will be to unite our party and our country, because only then will we overcome the challenges we face and build a better and more prosperous future,” he added.
Future
In effect, the new premier inherits an economy on its knees, with skyrocketing energy prices and interest rates, the mood of consumers and companies on the floor and distrust of the markets.
According to Danni Hewson, an analyst at AJ Bell, Sunak “has the market on his side” as he “expects it to stabilize the economy and the political situation.”
UK bond rates eased, with the 30-year bond falling to 3.886% yesterday versus 4.06% on Friday, though still well above late-2021 when it hovered around just 1%.
However, “the task looks daunting,” according to Susannah Streeter, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
For months, the country has chained adversity. The pandemic, the impact of Brexit, effective from January 2021, the war in Ukraine, the brutal inflation of energy prices and its effects on the increase in poverty with millions of Britons burdened by bills.
Added to this is the political chaos, between the scandals of the Boris Johnson government and the storm generated in the markets by Truss’s brief visit to Downing Street and the “mini-budget” of his then Finance Minister, Kwasi Kwarteng. The same, of colossal magnitude, included tax cuts and subsidies on energy bills, not encrypted and that had to be financed by loans before the markets, which caused panic among investors.
That was exactly what Sunak had predicted in his lost campaign against Truss to replace Boris Johnson in Downing Street, when he was advocating just the opposite: a return to budgetary orthodoxy, which is what will now prevail.
The country’s economic data is worrying: inflation of 10% is the highest in the Group of 7 and is at unprecedented levels for 40 years. The GDP fell in August and the manufacturing activity indicator showed a notable deterioration in October. Analysts believe that the country is heading towards recession.
The exception is the unemployment rate, at its lowest level in 50 years, but this is due to a lack of workers and an exit of job seekers from the labor market.
Definition
His only rival, the Minister for Parliamentary Relations, Penny Mordaunt, did not achieve the minimum of 100 supports – among the 357 Conservative MPs – necessary to present his candidacy.
Mordaunt, 49, had been left alone against Sunak after former Prime Minister Boris Johnson ruled out a highly controversial political comeback on Sunday night, announcing that he would not run to succeed the resigning Truss, who had replaced him. Same on September 6.
Johnson, 58, whose eventual candidacy deeply divided the formation, assured that he had the necessary support, despite having been forced by Conservative deputies to resign in July as a result of an accumulation of scandals. All in all, he assured “not being able to govern effectively if there is not a united party in Parliament”.
Sunak’s appointment “is obviously a very important moment for racial issues in this country,” Anand Menon, a political scientist at King’s College London, told the BBC. Already “before we had a cabinet with a good degree of representation of ethnic minorities. And having someone in the highest position is symbolically very, very important. But it reassures me to see that there hasn’t been as much discussion about it, almost as if the British people accept that this is normal,” he added.
For its part, the opposition Labor Party, with an overwhelming advantage in the polls, once again demanded the calling of early general elections – the next ones are scheduled for the end of 2024 – so that in a country of 67 million inhabitants they do not appoint the first minister a handful of deputies from the Conservative Party, which achieved an overwhelming majority in 2019.
“The Conservatives crowned Rishi Sunak without him saying a word about what he would do as prime minister. He has no mandate, no answers, no ideas. Nobody voted for that ”, lambasted his number two, Angela Rayner.
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
