–Campaign Likely to Centre on Tax, Cost of Living
By Laurie Laird
LONDON (MaceNews) – The battle to become the next UK prime minister is likely to be fought over tax policy and rising living costs, as UK Conservative party members begin voting to choose a new leader during the nation’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer – or finance minister – Rishi Sunak came out on top after a series of votes amongst the party’s parliamentarians. He’ll face Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in a ballot of approximately 175,000 registered party members, with a winner to be announced on 3 September.
The new Conservative leader will take over as prime minister from outgoing premier Boris Johnson, who resigned the post on 7 July. His premiership was mired in scandal, not least the infamous Partygate affair, a series of alcohol-fuelled gatherings at the prime minister’s office and home, Number 10 Downing Street, while the UK was under strict Covid restrictions. Johnson was fined by police for breaching those guidelines, the first prime minister found to have broken the law while in office.
However, it was Johnson’s support for a ministerial colleague accused of sexual misconduct that eventually doomed his political career. Sunak was one of the first ministers to withdraw from Johnson’s cabinet on 5 July. Just two days later, more than 50 top officials had resigned, leaving Johnson unable to govern.
Sunak had clashed repeatedly with Johnson over tax policy. The chancellor lifted individual National Insurance Contributions – a payroll tax – by 1.25% from April and pre-announced a rise in corporation tax to 25% from 19% to come into effect next year. Sunak has presented himself the only candidate able to control government borrowing.
Truss has pledged to reverse those tax pledges, reduce personal taxation rates, and delay the implementation of planned green levies, measures that have prompted Sunak to label his rival “a socialist.”
The foreign secretary has also waded into the contentious area of monetary policy. In a televised debate on Sunday, Truss blamed the Bank of England for failing to bring inflation under control, spooking markets when she pledged to review the Bank’s mandate and comparing the Bank’s performance unfavourably to that of the Bank of Japan.
UK inflation rose to a more-than-40-year high of 9.4% in June, according to data released earlier on Wednesday, up from 9.1% in May, highest of any G-7 country. Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey refused to rule out a 50-basis-point hike in a key policy speech Tuesday evening, doubling the 25-point increments that the Bank has implemented since beginning to tighten policy in November.
Sunak gained the support of 137 members of parliament in Wednesday’s vote, with Truss trailing on 113. However, polling by YouGov shows Truss to be the clear favourite among Conservative party members who will choose the next prime minister.
Centrist and left-leaning Conservatives have long criticised the party leadership process, claiming that registered party members are older, whiter and wealthier than the electorate as a whole.