Uk Prime Minister Troubles by Landon A. Opipari
The past few months have been historic for UK Prime ministers. Not only did Boris Johnson get replaced by Liz Truss, but she also has been replaced after only 44 days. To put that into perspective, every other Prime Minister has served at least 1 year.
Her leave was self chosen, although growing criticism around her leadership inspired that decision.
The UK pound dropped by over 10%, meeting the USD for the first time in half a century. This was due to Truss’s financial plans scaring investors. They included more borrowing and lacked the ability to set the U.K. on a profitable path. This got so extreme, pensions were at risk of being cut, and the Bank of England stepped in to prevent this. It was caused by an increase of government bonds yields.
In addition to this, Truss backpedaled most of her policies within her first month in parliament. She fired her first financial manager, Kwasi Kwarteng.
Ironically enough, she’s the first Prime Minister to serve under two monarchies in over 50 years. Along with this, Truss’s previous campaign rival, Rishi Sunak, was nominated the new Prime Minister, forcing her to congratulate the man she belittled weeks prior.
Rishi was elected in a two week run, without any real opposition. The only other real contender he may have had would have been Boris Johnson. Despite Parliament not liking him, he still has a moderate Tory following. Johnson has stated he could win, but doesn’t think he should lead the country anymore.
Rishi is the youngest Prime Minister, at the age of 42. But like his fellow predecessors, he has found himself in controversy. His wife committed tax evasion, and he is a Tory that is for tax raises at the moment. This goes against most of the Tory ideology of low tax and small government.
The biggest criticism made against the current few Prime Ministers, is the way they’re elected. The only people who can vote are Tory members for the Tory candidates. This is until 2025, with the next general election. As the article “Britain wants an election. It’s not getting one” suggests, this has garnered a vocal outcry to host a general election now: “A YouGov poll this week found 59 percent of the British public think Sunak should call an election — including 38 percent of all Conservative voters — compared with just 29 percent who thought he shouldn’t. That’s far higher than normal, and way above even the peak figure of 41 percent who wanted an election at the height of the Partygate scandal” (https://www.politico.eu/article/rishi-sunak-liz-truss-boris-johnson-britain-wants-an-election-but-frightened-tories-wont-give-it-one/amp/).
There isn’t a rule against holding a general election before January 2025. That is just the deadline. Sunak has the power to call a general election. But that would cost him and likely his party much of their power.
Regardless of how well Sunak serves as Prime Minister, the UK is in shambles. There are certain ideas going around that won’t be tried again. And there may be a push for putting more laws on future Prime Ministers, to avoid a situation like this again.
Her leave was self chosen, although growing criticism around her leadership inspired that decision.
The UK pound dropped by over 10%, meeting the USD for the first time in half a century. This was due to Truss’s financial plans scaring investors. They included more borrowing and lacked the ability to set the U.K. on a profitable path. This got so extreme, pensions were at risk of being cut, and the Bank of England stepped in to prevent this. It was caused by an increase of government bonds yields.
In addition to this, Truss backpedaled most of her policies within her first month in parliament. She fired her first financial manager, Kwasi Kwarteng.
Ironically enough, she’s the first Prime Minister to serve under two monarchies in over 50 years. Along with this, Truss’s previous campaign rival, Rishi Sunak, was nominated the new Prime Minister, forcing her to congratulate the man she belittled weeks prior.
Rishi was elected in a two week run, without any real opposition. The only other real contender he may have had would have been Boris Johnson. Despite Parliament not liking him, he still has a moderate Tory following. Johnson has stated he could win, but doesn’t think he should lead the country anymore.
Rishi is the youngest Prime Minister, at the age of 42. But like his fellow predecessors, he has found himself in controversy. His wife committed tax evasion, and he is a Tory that is for tax raises at the moment. This goes against most of the Tory ideology of low tax and small government.
The biggest criticism made against the current few Prime Ministers, is the way they’re elected. The only people who can vote are Tory members for the Tory candidates. This is until 2025, with the next general election. As the article “Britain wants an election. It’s not getting one” suggests, this has garnered a vocal outcry to host a general election now: “A YouGov poll this week found 59 percent of the British public think Sunak should call an election — including 38 percent of all Conservative voters — compared with just 29 percent who thought he shouldn’t. That’s far higher than normal, and way above even the peak figure of 41 percent who wanted an election at the height of the Partygate scandal” (https://www.politico.eu/article/rishi-sunak-liz-truss-boris-johnson-britain-wants-an-election-but-frightened-tories-wont-give-it-one/amp/).
There isn’t a rule against holding a general election before January 2025. That is just the deadline. Sunak has the power to call a general election. But that would cost him and likely his party much of their power.
Regardless of how well Sunak serves as Prime Minister, the UK is in shambles. There are certain ideas going around that won’t be tried again. And there may be a push for putting more laws on future Prime Ministers, to avoid a situation like this again.