Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: A century ago, India was the ‘Jewel in the British Crown.’ In the 2020s, India’s Janata Pariwar experiments in political and economic instability, of the 1970s and 1990s vintage, may have shifted to Great Britain, which currently has an Indian-origin Prime Minister in Rishi Sunak
Just six weeks into office, Rishi Sunak, the third British Prime Minister in 2022, is facing an uphill task to reform the battered economy after 40 Tory MPs, members of his own Conservative Party, signed a letter on Sunday complaining that the taxes are very high in the United Kingdom and demanded that these be reduced.
Amid ongoing Tory turmoil, Sunak is the fifth Conservative party leader elected to the top post in the past six years. “I will place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government’s agenda. This will mean difficult decisions to come,” he had said when elected to the PM’s office.
The letter, penned by a new Tory outfit called “Conservative Way Forward”, warned PM Sunak that the taxes were too high and he should save pounds on diversity, equality, and inclusion initiatives, the media reported on Monday.
They wrote this letter after the launch of a new movement, backed by peer Lord Cruddas, who asked PM Sunak, 42, to look into the matter. Lord Peter Andrew Cruddas is an English banker and business owner.
The Tory MPs’ letter about the recent budget, addressed to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, complained about taxes unseen since the end of the Second World War in 1945. The government should focus more on people suffering through the cost-of-living crisis, they said, adding tax money should not be wasted but utilized for effective measures.
They also opposed investments of 7 billion pounds, which could have been curtailed and given back to taxpayers, as they demanded more money for frontline public services.
In the last six weeks, PM Sunak has already made several U-turns in policy decisions, with commitments on fracking, wind farms, and housing targets scrapped in the face of strong Tory opposition as he faced surging energy bills and a cost-of-living crisis.
“We need to reassure our constituents, who are worried about the cost-of-living crisis, that every penny of taxpayers’ money spent on their behalf provides value for money and is not wasted,” the letter read.
The Tories’ group, supported by former interior minister Priti Patel, also said the selection of Rishi Sunak by lawmakers, just weeks after members voted for his predecessor Liz Truss, finally ended faith in any democracy existing within the Conservative Party.