The continuous hum of helicopters above Westminster, the ballet of Range Rovers between Downing Street and Buckingham Palace, that of the ministers, smiling from ear to ear or gloomy faces depending on whether they were promoted or curtly thanked… It was day of handover and formation of the government of Rishi Sunak, Tuesday, October 25, in London. Redesigns are usually expedited in the UK. This time, moreover, the third Conservative Prime Minister in less than three months has little time to convince the financial markets and the British that they can count on a functioning government after the chaos of the Johnson years and the disaster of the Truss weeks.
“The work begins immediately”, warned Rishi Sunak, during his first leadership speech, just after his first audience with King Charles III. The country faces “to a deep economic crisis” and “difficult decisions are ahead”, warned the leader. An austerity plan could be confirmed as early as October 31. Boris Johnson’s former Chancellor of the Exchequer, 42, has promised to “repair errors” of Liz Truss, who rocked the financial markets with her massive, unfunded tax cuts, and restoring “professionalism, integrity and responsibility” in Downing Street – a direct criticism of the management of Boris Johnson, forced to resign in July over a series of scandals.
National media and pundits all agree: Rishi Sunak has a mountain to climb to restore calm to a Conservative Party in near-permanent mutiny, and reassure the British, faced with double-digit inflation (10.1% in September), to sharply rising energy bills and mortgages. First pledges of seriousness and stability: there will not be a fifth Chancellor of the Exchequer in four months. Jeremy Hunt is retained in the post he has held for only ten days, having replaced at short notice a faithful of Liz Truss, Kwasi Kwarteng, co-architect of the minibudget who panicked the financial markets. Mr. Hunt, a former Theresa May health minister, has already succeeded in reassuring investors, and it is he who is working on the future austerity programme, dubbed the “Halloween budget” by the media.
Loyalty rewarded
Rishi Sunak also chose to
while the country is suffering from 10% inflation and rising energy bills A way of showing that it intends to maintain the same line of unconditional support for Ukraine. However, Mr. Sunak has still not promised anything regarding the defense budget: Boris Johnson and Liz Truss had pledged to increase it to 3% of the country’s gross domestic product.
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