The British Conservative Party, led by Rishi Sunak, who is trailing in the opinion polls, will meet starting Sunday at a conference in Manchester in the hope of finding a formula to change the situation and avoid defeat in the upcoming elections.
First Amendment:
3 minutes
Opinion polls in recent months predict a shift in the country towards the left, with the Labor Party leading by about 20 points before the 2024 elections. Sunak (43 years old) has recently struggled to attract conservative voters, especially motorists. On Friday, he presented a plan to prevent what he called “anti-car” measures adopted by some communities, such as creating zones with a speed limit of 30 kilometers per hour.
Such a measure attracted criticism when it was introduced in Wales by a local Labor government, allowing it to make a difference with its opponents. He also recently eased some environmental targets, while ensuring that such changes will not prevent the country from achieving its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. The setback, which was denounced by the opposition and environmental organisations, which postpones the elimination of combustion vehicles to a new year 2035, comes after… An almost unexpected victory for the Conservatives in a by-election.
The result was interpreted as a collective rejection of the extension of congestion charges on polluting vehicles across Greater London, a landmark move by Labor Mayor Sadiq Khan.
– Tax pressures –
The Prime Minister will speak at noon on Wednesday in Parliament after senior government figures including Defense Ministers Grant Shapps; Secretary of State James Cleverly, and Secretary of the Interior Suella Braverman. “The stakes in next year’s election have never been higher,” Sunak wrote in the introduction to the conference programme.
He contrasts the Conservatives and Labor as “two ways of doing politics (…) governing according to the country’s long-term interests, making difficult decisions more fairly with the Conservatives, or taking short-term politically motivated actions without measuring the consequences, with Labour.”
Sunak, a champion of budget doctrine, is also facing pressure from his own ranks at a time when taxes account for 37% of national income, an increase of £3,500 ($4,269) per household compared to the end of 2019, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt on Saturday dashed hopes for short-term tax cuts in an interview with The Times, initially promising the “biggest transformation of public services”, especially social care.
Although his party has been in power for 13 years, Sunak is striving to present himself as an agent of change. He arrived at Downing Street less than a year ago after the chaotic and short-lived tenure of Liz Truss and the years of Boris Johnson, who resigned after a wave of scandals following the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. In January, Sunak announced five priorities for the economy, combating illegal immigration, health, and the environment.
But the Prime Minister appears with 23% approval, according to YouGov, which is the lowest approval rating since he came to power. In Manchester, Sunak will also come under intense scrutiny over his alleged plans to cut the section between that northern city and Birmingham, the country’s second high-speed rail line.
Since the December 2019 legislative elections, in which the Conservatives, led by Boris Johnson, achieved a majority unseen since Margaret Thatcher, their advantage has been gradually eroded with several by-elections. The Conservative Party currently holds 352 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, ahead of Labour’s 196 seats.
“Subtly charming bacon junkie. Infuriatingly humble beer trailblazer. Introvert. Evil reader. Hipster-friendly creator.”