A New British PM in a Week, Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson may be in Race

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Oct 20: Amidst demands from the opposition Labour for a fresh general elections in the aftermath of the resignation by the UK prime minister Liz Truss on Thursday, the British Conservative Party is set out to elect her successor within a week with many believe it could be the India-origin Rishi Sunak who had lost out to Truss in the leadership race barely six weeks back.

After Truss, who barely 24 hours ago had claimed herself to be a “fighter and not quitter,” bowed out of office, U.K. Labour leader Keir Starmer demanded an immediate general election. Ms. Truss faced harsh putdowns from Labour’s Starmer as she took part in her first Prime Minister’s Questions since the budget U-turns. Mr. Starmer asked the House of Commons: “What’s the point of a prime minister whose promises don’t even last a week?”, as opposition MPs jeered and booed Truss, and her own party’s MPs remained silent.

Speaking in Downing Street, Ms. Truss said she would stay on as Prime Minister until a successor is chosen to serve as Tory leader. “We’ve agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week,” she said, after senior backbench MP Graham Brady told her the game was up. “This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plan and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security,” she added.

The contest to replace Ms. Truss should be concluded by October 28, Mr. Brady said. “It will be possible to conduct a ballot and conclude a leadership election by Friday the 28th of October. So we should have a new leader in place before the fiscal statement which will take place on (October) the 31st,” he added. Besides the former finance minister Sunak, whose warnings were vindicated and he quickly emerged as the bookmakers’ favourite on Thursday, the former prime minister Boris Johnson, for whom a section of the Conservative Party MPs believe should be called back, may also be in contention for the top job.

The end for Ms. Truss came after a key minister resigned and many Tory MPs rebelled over an important vote in chaotic scenes at the House of Commons late Wednesday. By Thursday morning, more than a dozen Conservative MPs had publicly urged Ms. Truss to resign, after her tax-cutting plans caused a market meltdown during an already severe cost-of-living crisis. Many more were reported to have submitted letters to Mr. Brady calling for her to be removed, although party rules would have forbidden another leadership campaign for 12 months.

“The prime minister acknowledges yesterday was a difficult day and she recognises the public wanted to see the government focusing less on politics and more on delivering their priorities,” her official spokesman told reporters. Barely two hours later, she quit.

But Ms. Suella Braverman, an arch right-winger who enjoys strong support among the Tory membership, used her resignation message to attack Truss in blistering terms. There then followed farcical scenes in parliament as many Tory MPs rebelled against the government’s demand that they drop the party’s manifesto commitment to maintain a ban on fracking.

Amidst accusations of heavy-handed efforts to whip MPs into line, some of whom later briefed the media that it was the nail in the coffin of the Truss premiership, Conservative lord Ed Vaizey said the “only way out of this mess is for Liz Truss to stand down and for somebody to be appointed as prime minister by Conservative MPs.” Now, the party can avoid a lengthy leadership contest by consolidating around a unity candidate for her replacement.

The world leaders reacted to Truss resignation after being prime minister for the briefest period. French President Emmanuel Macron said it was important that British Kingdom found “stability as soon as possible.” “We want, above all else, stability,” Mr. Macron told reporters as he arrived at a European Union summit in Brussels. “On a personal level, I am always sad to see a colleague go,” he added.

Russia’s foreign ministry welcomed the departure of Liz Truss saying she was a disgrace of a leader who would be remembered for her “catastrophic illiteracy.” “Britain has never known such a disgrace of a prime minister,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

The claim of illiteracy appears to refer to Truss’ visit to Moscow shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine while she was British foreign minister. In a meeting with Russia’s veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, she appeared to confuse two regions of Russia with Ukraine, triggering mockery by the Russian diplomat and across talk shows on Russian state TV.

The United States and Britain are enduring allies and their strong bond will last, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday after Truss announced her resignation. “The United States and the United Kingdom are strong Allies and enduring friends — and that fact will never change. I thank Prime Minister Liz Truss for her partnership on a range of issues including holding Russia accountable for its war against Ukraine. We will continue our close cooperation with the U.K. government as we work together to meet the global challenges our nations face,” Mr. Biden said in a statement.

Britain must appoint a new Prime Minister to succeed Liz Truss as “quickly as possible” to ensure stability within the broader political and financial spectrums, said Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin, as he arrived at a European Union summit. “I think stability is very important and we would like to see the UK system within its capacity to have a successor selected as quickly as possible and that stability would be brought to the situation given the fairly significant geopolitical issues facing Europe, not least the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis,” he told reporters in Brussels.

The London stock market and the pound bounced on Thursday after Ms. Truss announced her resignation following disastrous policies that rocked the markets for weeks. The pound traded around 0.4% higher against the dollar to $1.1273 after Ms. Truss ended six tumultuous weeks in power— but analysts said gains were pared by the ongoing uncertainty. The FTSE 100 index was up 0.1% while the country’s borrowing costs eased on the news, as the yield on 30-year government bonds, known as gilts, fell to 3.94%.