UK: Liz Truss will be sworn in as Britain's next prime minister on Tuesday, and she will immediately appoint a cabinet of loyal MPs as her government begins the race against the clock to devise a plan to tackle the cost of living crisis.
She will become Britain's fourth Conservative prime minister in six years after defeating Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership election held after Tory MPs ousted Boris Johnson.
On Thursday, the prime minister-elect is expected to announce plans for an energy price freeze as she struggles to navigate a massive in-trench during the worst economic crisis in a generation.
He will also face a difficult task in winning Tory lawmakers, as he has inherited a deeply divided party that is trailing in the polls – some rebel backbenchers already plotting his demise. Truss received 81,326 Tory votes (57.4%) against the former chancellor's 60,399 (42.6%), a narrower victory than many expected.
They celebrated the result with loyal lawmakers and supporters on Monday night, but the euphoria of victory will soon be replaced by the harsh reality of the challenges ahead, with the country on the brink of a livelihood crisis and the economy on the brink. recession.
The truce is expected to announce support for homes and businesses later this week, with aides reportedly discussing a £100 billion package that could include a freeze on energy bills. According to Treasury sources, under the proposal, funds could be provided by commercial banks and backed by government guarantees, and then added to consumers' bills over time.
According to reports, one option under consideration is to freeze all domestic bills till the next scheduled general election in 2024. Truss is also said to consider expanding North Sea gas extraction.
The plan would put the average annual household energy bill at £1,971 instead of increasing to £3,549 next month.
Truss said in his victory speech at a convention center in central London that the Tory's belief in freedom, low taxes and personal responsibility "resonates with the British people." "I campaigned as a conservative during this leadership campaign, and I will rule as a conservative," she said. We should showcase our potential in the next two years."
It promised a "bold plan" to cut taxes and grow the economy, along with rising energy bills and longer-term growth, after promising to reverse an already national insurance hike and cut corporation tax. Pledge to deal with energy supply.
Importantly, she appeared to rule out a snap election, telling a central London audience that she would "drive a major victory for the Conservative Party in 2024," an acknowledgment that her party's fortunes look bleak in the coming months. Is.
It comes after a seven-week campaign in which both campaigns traded personal attacks and a void at the top of the government left the public in search of vain reassurance, with senior conservatives fearing long-term damage to their electoral prospects. .
A YouGov poll found that 50% of Britons were disappointed that Truss would be the next prime minister, with a third (33%) saying they were "very disappointed" - up from 22% who said they were "very or quite happy" "."
Johnson will submit his resignation to the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday, and Truss will meet with the monarch at his Highland residence to confirm his appointment.
The new prime minister will then return to London, where she will address the nation in a speech outside No 10 Downing Street - until she is forced indoors by thunderstorms before finalizing her first cabinet.
Truss's closest cabinet aide, Quasi Quarteng, will become chancellor, and he is expected to confirm the appointments of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary and James Cleverly as Foreign Secretary. Because of these appointments, for the first time in history, there will be no whites in the four noble positions of the state.
His rival, Rishi Sunak, is not expected to be offered a position in his cabinet, breaking the tradition of offering positions to candidates with the most unsuccessful leadership. The former chancellor told the BBC that joining the cabinet "isn't something I'm thinking about," and some aides speculated that he would prefer to be on the backbench in case Trump's leadership explodes.
Priti Patel and Nadine Dorries have both announced their resignations as Home and Culture Secretaries, respectively, and will return to the backbench. Cabinet Office minister Nigel Adams and Tory Party co-chair Ben Elliott also resigned.
Even though new prime ministers generally expect a boost in polls, any political honeymoon is likely to be short-lived, with an overflowing in-tray of thorny issues such as the prospect of an autumn of strikes, the NHS and ambulance services on the verge of collapse, the conflict in Ukraine showing no signs of abating, and an ongoing row with Brussels over how to implement Brexit in Northern Ireland.
Truss's first days in office, however, will be dominated by her plans to address the energy crisis. Kwarteng indicated on Monday that she would allow borrowing to rise temporarily and would prioritise tax cuts for the wealthy over redistribution. "Given the severity of the crisis we face, some fiscal loosening will be required to help people get through the winter," he said.
The would-be chancellor claimed that Britain can afford to borrow more and that only Germany has a lower debt-to-GDP ratio among G7 nations, despite the fact that doing so would mean suspending the fiscal rules Truss had promised Tory members she would stick to.
Senior Conservatives vying for positions in Truss' cabinet have been told "in no uncertain terms" not to criticise the idea, first proposed by Labour, of freezing energy bills.
According to industry sources, a "deficit tariff fund," first proposed by ScottishPower earlier this year, may be the preferred option for assisting households. Commercial banks would deposit funds into the state-backed fund, which suppliers could then use to freeze customers' bills, according to the proposals.
The scheme's cost would then be repaid over 10 to 15 years via a surcharge on bills or taxation. That option, however, could cost more than £100 billion.
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