Who will succeed Boris Johnson in the UK? Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss wrestle in the internal party fight - now for the first time in a TV duel. But not all Britons have a say. That arouses resentment. Still Prime Minister Johnson also makes headlines with contradictory statements about his resignation plans.
In the race to succeed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss exchanged blows on topics such as taxes and budgets in their first TV debate. Before the one-hour duel late Monday evening in Stoke-on-Trent, Truss was the favorite according to several polls.
Sunak's focus on balancing the budget would push the economy into recession, Truss told Sunak. "It would be a big mistake to let the economy collapse in order to pay off debt faster." Sunak countered that Truss' promised tax cut was nothing more than a "sugar rush" for the economy, which would inevitably be followed by the crash. Sunak initially wants to wait for a decline in inflation, which is also comparatively high in Great Britain.
Truss announced that he would take action against Chinese technology groups like TikTok in the event of a victory and advocated a continuation of Johnson's high-spending government course. "Does anyone think it's sensible to take a massive tens of billions of pounds of borrowing and fuel inflation even more?" asked Sunak, who repeatedly interrupted Truss during the televised duel. He initially wanted to wait for a decline in inflation, which is also comparatively high in Great Britain.
The opposition Labor Party said both candidates in the debate badmouthed the Conservative government's record and neither had presented a plan to deal with the deepening cost-of-living crisis. UK inflation is on track to hit 11% a year, growth is stagnating, labor disputes are mounting and the pound is at an all-time low against the dollar.
Truss and Sunak had received enough votes in the last Conservative MPs vote to advance to the finals. Originally, eleven candidates had applied to succeed Johnson. Now the 200,000 members of the party are to decide by postal vote between Sunak and Truss as the future chairman or chairman. The result will be announced on September 5th.
The leader of the party automatically heads the government as the Tories are the largest party in the House of Commons. Before the debate, British media pointed out that Tory party members only inaccurately represent the entire population. The BBC quoted a study by Queen Mary University London as saying that more than half were older than 50 years. A poll of 1,032 voters by the polling firm Survation found that 39 percent of the British public thought Sunak had done best in the debate, versus 38 percent who thought Truss did better.
Former Goldman Sachs banker Sunak has long been considered the favorite to succeed Johnson. He earned merits in the corona pandemic with a rescue program for the economy. However, given the skyrocketing cost of living, many Britons felt his ministry's support was too low and the taxes too high. Like Johnson, Sunak was fined for breaching lockdown requirements.
Truss is considered the darling of the conservative party base, which decides on the successor. In Johnson's government, she was foreign trade secretary for two years before the staunch Brexit supporter was appointed foreign secretary. Since last year she has also represented British positions as chief negotiator in Brussels at the EU. A YouGov poll of Conservative Party members released last week found Truss ahead of Sunak by 24 points in the race for party leadership.
Johnson did not resign after multiple misdemeanors. Only after the departure of numerous employees in protest did he announce his departure. However, he intends to remain in office until the successor has been decided. Shortly before the debate, The Telegraph newspaper, citing former Treasury Secretary Peter Cruddas, reported that Johnson had said at a joint meal on Friday that he would prefer not to resign. However, other media immediately quoted government officials saying that Johnson was sticking to his planned resignation.
