The UK could have a third Prime Minister: who she is and who chooses her | today’s news

The election of Britain’s new Conservative Party leader, who will automatically become prime minister to succeed Boris Johnson, last week entered on Monday, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss as the top candidate, in a complex economic and social context.

Truss, 47, leads former finance minister Rishi Sunak by more than 30 points in the latest opinion polls among Conservative Party affiliates, which will decide the contest that began in early July when Johnson was forced to resign after being harassed over scandals.

Conservative hardliners have been voting by mail and online since the beginning of the month to appoint their new leader, in a process that ends on Friday.

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The winner will be announced next Monday and will immediately take the reins of government to deal with the economic crisis that the country is going through and threatened by an autumn of protests and strikes in the context of uncontrollable inflation that has already reached 10% and is heading. for over 13% at the end of the year.

He succeeded eight Conservative candidates in July to succeed controversial Johnson, including party lawmakers who named two, in successive elimination votes, to present them to the election on the basis of the rules.

And so the UK will find itself in a week with a new head of government elected only by about 200,000 forming government members, while the rest of the country watches helplessly with relative interest.

Who is Liz Truss?

Burdened with rich political baggage, British diplomat Liz Truss has emerged as the frontrunner in the race for Downing Street against Rishi Sunak, beleaguered in his image as a wealthy technocratic banker.

Despite being an embrace of Conservatism and Brexit, the 47-year-old has won the ruling party’s base with her traditional ultra-liberal policies.

Sunak was, in the early stages of the election, the preferred candidate for Conservative MPs. The 42-year-old former finance minister has a reputation for being a better speaker, but he failed to win membership to the party, which includes about 200,000 white men, who have the final say in choosing their new leader.

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Instead, his rival sent a clear message of massive tax cuts and public cuts, not blinking in the face of attack.

“She’s better at politics,” considers John Curtis, a professor of political science at the University of Strathclyde, whose “head of diplomacy has easily been able to convey traditional conservative messages.”

“If you ask me what Liz Truss’ campaign message is, I can tell you right away: tax cuts, not help,” he says. “For Sunak, there is nothing.”

In his opinion, Sonak also appears to be “a bit nervous, and seems uncomfortable under pressure”.

He concludes, “This shows she stayed in the ring longer.”

Parallel with Margaret Thatcher

However, Truss has had a complicated political career at times.

Born on July 26, 1975 to a very left-wing family, she initially fought in the centrist Liberal Democratic Party before joining the Conservative Party, with which she became an MP in 2010.

Since 2012, he has held a number of ministerial positions (Education, Environment, Justice and Secretary General of the Treasury).

She voted against Brexit in the 2016 referendum. But instead of letting it take its toll, she later changed the situation by becoming one of the most ardent supporters of Brexit, negotiating and announcing new free trade agreements.

Appointed in 2021 as Head of Diplomacy, she was stubborn with the EU regarding Northern Ireland, and with Boris Johnson was firm against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

And she drew comparisons to the ultra-liberal Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, of whom she was a huge fan, by appearing atop a tank tower or wearing a signature floral blouse.

She is sometimes seen as stolid, but she has seemed to be more relaxed in recent weeks. His allies claim that he loves cheese and karaoke.

Rishi Sunak, the elite grandson of Indian immigrants

Although Sunak loves to be remembered as the grandson of Indian immigrants and to highlight his childhood as the son of a doctor and pharmacist in Southampton, southern England, he merged with the elite because he became a wealthy banker and got married. A billionaire Indian heiress.

He studied at a prestigious private boarding school for boys and then at Oxford University.

He completed his studies at Stanford University in California, where he met his wife Akshata Murti, the daughter of an Indian billionaire, and went on to work at Goldman Sachs and investment funds.

Of the Hindu faith, this father of two daughters was elected MP in 2015 and was immediately considered a potential Prime Minister.

Just five years later, he secured the position of finance minister at the age of 39, just before the pandemic began. During the health crisis, he gained popularity for distributing huge aid packages to keep jobs and businesses.

But he was embroiled in a scandal a few months ago over the privileged tax status of his wife, who had avoided paying taxes in the UK on her multi-million dollar income overseas.

In the context of rising inflation, his way of life, with his expensive allowances and possessions, makes him seem oblivious to the population which is facing a serious crisis due to the high cost of living.

How is the British Prime Minister chosen?

Only members of the Conservative Party will choose the next British Prime Minister. They are about 200,000, in a country of 67 million people, mostly white men, older and better off than the average population.

Below is a profile of this voter based on the Party Members Project (PMP), a study conducted by Queen Mary University of London and the University of Sussex and published in 2020.

In the United Kingdom, the leader of the parliamentary majority becomes prime minister and it is not necessary to call an early legislative election if the party changes leaders mid-term.

Thus, less than 0.3% of the population is now ready to elect a new leader for the country.

The Conservative Party did not provide exact figures on the number of members who could participate in the vote.

But a spokesperson said the number would exceed 160,000 people who voted in the last such election, which led to Boris Johnson’s victory in 2019.

The party’s then chairwoman, Amanda Melling, said in 2021 that there were now about 200,000 voters.

Voting is open to all members who registered at least three months before the elections.

They have until September 2nd to vote, either by mail or online. The result will be announced on September 5th.

Age, gender, and ethnicity of voters

In contrast to the diversity of candidates who entered the race for party leadership, the formation members are predominantly white and roughly two-thirds are men.

39% are over 65 years old and a fifth are between 50 and 64 years old.

By comparison, less than 20% of the UK population is aged 65 or over, according to the Office for National Statistics, ONS.

The party’s voters are also overwhelmingly white: 96%, ten points more than the total population.

How did the Conservatives vote on Britain’s exit from the European Union?

In the 2016 Brexit referendum, 52% of Britons voted to leave the European Union.

Within the Conservative Party, about three-quarters of members are pro-Brexit, according to the Party Members Project.

Secretary of State Liz Truss, a favorite in opinion polls, called for her to remain in the European Union in 2016 before becoming a staunch supporter of Brexit. Instead, his rival Rishi Sunak voted to leave the community bloc.

The social and geographical origins of voters

Members of the Conservative Party are generally much wealthier than the electorate: 80% are considered middle and upper-class, compared to 57% of Britons, according to YouGov.

Subsidiaries are largely concentrated in the south of England, where just over a third of the total population lives, particularly in London. Only a fifth live in northern England and 6% live in Scotland.

What do you expect from the new prime minister?

They cite the candidates’ personality, rather than their political promises, as a determining factor in voting, according to a July survey by YouGov of party members.

After the scandals that marred Boris Johnson’s tenure, half of the members polled considered the new leader’s “honesty and integrity” to be important.

In terms of policy, respondents were willing to return to “traditional conservatism,” emphasizing lower taxes and state spending. This coincides with Liz Truss’s agenda, while her rival Rishi Sunak favors budget orthodoxy after the massive public debt she incurred in response to the pandemic.

What are the main challenges for the new prime minister?

Facing some Britons worried about the cost of living, especially when the ceiling on energy prices has risen by 80% since October, the two candidates have faced each other in several television debates, as well as toured several cities.

Overshadowed by the campaign how to respond to the economic and social crisis.

Truss promised immediate tax cuts, stressing that an impending recession was not inevitable and that a post-Brexit adjustment to the trade and financial rules inherited from the European Union would allow for a boost in economic growth.

For his part, Al-Sinak defended the necessity of maintaining the tax increases that he decided himself before leaving the financial portfolio and providing public assistance to the most disadvantaged groups. He accused his rival of defending the “fairytale economy”.

If she becomes prime minister, Truss will be the third in the country’s history after also conservatives Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) and Theresa May (2016-2019).

But the next general election is due in January 2025 at the latest, and opinion polls give the opposition Labor Party a 13-point lead over the Conservative Party, which has been in power for 12 years.

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