#UKPrimeMinister : Not yet ‘Ready for Rishi’

Picture : Twitter/ ANI

It all started on a very exciting note with an Indian origin Rishi Sunak throwing his hat in the ring for the UK Prime minister’s election with even more exciting that he is the son-in-law of Narayan Murthy, Founder, Infosys. But very soon it was quite apparent as the days passed, that UK was probably not yet ‘Ready for Rishi’!

As was expected, Liz Truss beat her rival, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, by 81,326 votes to 60,399, after a summer-long internal contest arising out of Boris Johnson’s resignation in July. Truss, 47, will be only the UK’s third female prime minister following Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher. Born in Oxford, England, Truss has been MP for West Norfolk since 2010, a minister for 10 years and a cabinet minister for eight. It makes her one of the most experienced operators in the UK’s government. Before being named Conservative leader, she was foreign secretary. Truss has also been trade secretary, chief secretary to the Treasury, women and equalities minister and environment secretary. She was the first woman to be Lord Chancellor and justice secretary.

Soon after the results and accepting his defeat with grace, Rishi Sunak asked the Conservative Party members to unite behind the newly-appointed British Prime Minister Liz Truss, to steer the country through difficult times. The former Chancellor in his tweet said, “I’ve said throughout that the Conservatives are one family. It’s right we now unite behind the new PM, Liz Truss, as she steers the country through difficult times.”

Source: Reuters

After winning the leadership race, Truss vowed to press ahead with promises of tax cuts and to deal with a growing energy crisis. Long the front-runner in the race to replace Johnson, Truss will become the Conservatives’ fourth prime minister since a 2015 election. The United Kingdom now faces what is forecast to be a long recession triggered by sky-rocketing inflation which hit 10.1 per cent in July.

Truss said, “I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy. I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people’s energy bills, but also dealing with the long-term issues we have on energy supply.” She takes over as the country faces a crunch on household finances, industrial unrest, a recession and war in Europe, where Britain has been a leading backer of Ukraine.

Now that Truss has accomplished her first task of winning the Prime Minister’s election, she has an uphill and an ardous task of fulfilling the promises she made during her election campaign. People of UK are looking at her with hope to steer them away from the worst economic crisis the country is facing at the moment. So it’s wait and watch for Liz Truss and her team for now!