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Boris, Sunak meet ahead of Tory leadership poll

Rishi Sunak with Boris Johnson

Johnson cut short a luxury stay in the Dominican Republic to join the seemingly three-way tussle, with allies saying he was “up for it”…reports Asian Lite News

Conservative rivals Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak held face-to-face talks late Saturday, reports said, as the feuding pair who once headed Britain’s government were poised to battle for the leadership of their fractured ruling party.

Former prime minister Johnson, who returned from a Caribbean holiday earlier in the day aiming to launch an audacious political comeback just weeks after leaving office, met ex-finance minister Sunak to discuss the race, the BBC and others reported.

Both are yet to declare they will run to replace outgoing leader Liz Truss, who announced Thursday she would stand down — just 44 tempestuous days into her tenure.

It is thought to be their first in-person discussions in months, following a spectacular falling out after Sunak’s July resignation helped trigger the government mutiny that ultimately prompted Johnson’s ousting.

Few details have emerged about what The Sun dubbed a “secret summit” and the Sunday Times said was ongoing at close to 10:00 pm (2100 GMT). The Sunday Telegraph reported they were set to discuss “agreeing to a joint ticket” to avoid a Tory “civil war”.

That implausible scenario comes as Sunak races ahead in the count of Conservative MP nominations to be the next leader, with the 42-year-old easily securing the 100 minimum threshold set by the party to contest the UK’s top job.

He has the public backing of 128 Tory lawmakers, compared to Johnson’s 53 and 23 for cabinet member Penny Mordaunt, who was the first to formally declare, on Friday.

Johnson cut short a luxury stay in the Dominican Republic to join the seemingly three-way tussle, with allies saying he was “up for it”.

The divisive 58-year-old Brexit architect only relinquished power in early September, two months after announcing his resignation following a government revolt over a slew of scandals.

Unpredictability

The Tories have now been forced into a second, this time expedited, leadership contest since the summer after Truss resigned following her disastrous tax-slashing mini-budget sparked economic and political turmoil.

In a sign of the toll from the tumult, ratings agency Moody’s said Friday it had downgraded Britain’s outlook, blaming in part “heightened unpredictability in policy making”.

Meanwhile, the pound — which hit a record low against the dollar in the mini-budget’s immediate aftermath, but had since rallied — slumped.

Johnson’s apparent bid to reclaim power has already been decried by opposition politicians, and even some in his own fractured ruling party who are demanding stability and unity.

“It is simply not right to risk repeating the chaos (and) confusion of the last year,” said David Frost, a right-wing formerly loyal minister appointed to the House of Lords by Johnson.

“We must move on,” he urged the Tories, adding they “must get behind a capable leader who can deliver a Conservative programme” who he identified as ex-finance minister Sunak.

Dominic Raab — Johnson’s deputy prime minister — echoed the comments, telling Sky News an imminent parliamentary inquiry into the “Partygate” scandal that dogged his former boss could prove too distracting.

Veteran backbencher Roger Gale has also warned that Johnson could face a wave of resignations from MPs refusing to serve under him again.

Meanwhile in a major coup for Sunak, trade minister Kemi Badenoch, an influential right-winger, said in a Sunday Times article that “he would be a great leader during a time of crisis”.

Hogwash

The accelerated contest will see the Conservatives’ 357 MPs hold a vote Monday on any candidates with the 100 nominations, before a possible online ballot of party members later in the week if two remain.

Tory MP James Duddridge, a key Johnson ally who confirmed Friday the ex-leader was intent on standing, said Saturday that he had now secured the support of 100 colleagues.

But the claim was met with scepticism by other Conservatives, with one MP telling the BBC it was “hogwash”.

Johnson has nonetheless been endorsed by several Tory heavyweights, including on Saturday ex-interior minister Priti Patel.

Meanwhile, posting a photo of Johnson on the phone to his Facebook, backbench Conservative MP Lee Anderson revealed he was backing him after “a long chat about everything past and present”.

“My inbox is full of BBB (bring back Boris),” he said, referring to an acronym and hashtag used by his supporters.

Although he remains popular with party members who could decide the contest, polling shows he is broadly disliked by the electorate, with a YouGov survey finding 52 percent opposed his comeback.

Another poll also found three in five voters now want an early general election, in line with demands from opposition parties, as Britons struggle with a worsening cost-of-living crisis.

ALSO READ-Sunak gets backing of over 100 MPs to enter PM race

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Is it back to Boris or Sunak?

Rishi Sunak became the Chancellor of the UK Exchequer (finance minister, in effect) just before the Covid pandemic hit in early 2020…reports Asian Lite News

Even before Liz Truss resigned, five names were floating about who’ll come after her.

Economic policies that had to be reversed, a series of resignations by ministers and aides, and then loss of the Conservative Party’s faith in her meant the announcement was no surprise.

What may be surprising is that Boris Johnson, her scandal-ridden predecessor, is one of the names in the mix.

Prominent UK news outlets — the Times, Daily Telegraph, and the BBC — have reports saying he’s in the running. The Times report quotes sources as saying Boris Johnson believes it’s a matter of “national interest” that he returns to 10 Downing Street.

He’s no frontrunner, though. That, unsurprisingly, is Rishi Sunak.

The bookmakers’ favourite, former finance minister Sunak had lost the race to Liz Truss just weeks ago.

After him come Penny Mordaunt and defence minister Ben Wallace, followed by Jeremy Hunt, the current finance minister. Mr Hunt has said he’s not going to run, which brings former PM Boris Johnson to fourth spot on the favourites’ chart.

The Conservatives — or Tories, as they’re called — still have more until December 2024 in power, that is if they can find a PM who can last in the chair. The party will elect a new leader next week, until which time Liz Truss remains in the chair.

Here are the likely contenders

Rishi Sunak became the Chancellor of the UK Exchequer (finance minister, in effect) just before the Covid pandemic hit in early 2020.

But his riches meant people even within the party were doubtful if he can understand the choose-heating-or-eating economic situation of the common people.

The finance-expert son of Indian-origin parents who came to the UK from Africa decades ago, the millionaire is married to Indian tech heiress Akshaya Murty, whose father NR Narayana Murthy founded Infosys.

His alleged avoidance of taxes using loopholes has been questioned too. An MP since 2015, the 42-year-old quit just before Boris Johnson did, marred by scandals, in July.

Rishi Sunak said in his resignation that government should “be conducted properly, competently and seriously”.

“I recognise this may be my last ministerial job, but I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning,” he wrote. He then entered, and lost, the race to the top job to Liz Truss.

Penny Mordaunt, at present the Leader of the House of Commons, came third behind Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak in the Tory party leadership election.

After falling out of the race, she had backed Liz Truss. Recent;y, as Liz Truss’s star fell, Penny Mordaunt wrote a newspaper column saying “Britain needs stability, not a soap opera”.

The 49-year-old was once a reality TV star and is the only woman in the race now.

The BBC calls her “the Brexiteer who is popular with the grassroots”. She was a prominent backer of Britain exiting the European Union in a 2016 referendum.

Ben Wallace, 52, Defence Secretary under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, was a bookies’ favourite when Mr Johnson quit. But he chose not to run.

Just two days ago, he had said he would quit if Liz Truss did not honour her promise to spend 3 per cent of the UK’s GDP on defence by 2030.

Boris Johnson, the ever-colourful and often-scandalous former Mayor of London served more than three years as PM but had to quit after news of parties at his official home during the Covid lockdown surfaced.

That was not the only scandal that led to his exit, though.

His newspaper writing have often landed him in trouble — allegations of racism come up multiple times.

He has been a senior Tory for over two decades now, and support to Brexit is seen as his big moment of propulsion to the serious political plane.

ALSO READ-All Eyes On Sunak To Succeed Truss

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Boris ally urges Truss to call snap poll

Dorries was asked by Truss to stay on as culture secretary but chose instead to return to the backbenches when the new PM took over…reports Asian Lite News

Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries has suggested Liz Truss should call a general election to obtain a mandate for her policies.

Dorries, a Boris Johnson loyalist who backed Truss in the leadership election, said there was “widespread dismay” at the prime minister for rowing back on key parts of her predecessor’s agenda.

She gave one example as the privatisation of Channel 4 – a controversial policy that the new culture secretary has said will be “re-examined”.

Dorries tweeted: “Widespread dismay at the fact that three years of work has effectively been put on hold. No one asked for this. Channel 4 sale, online safety, BBC licence fee review – all signed off by cabinet all ready to go, all stopped. If Liz wants a whole new mandate, she must take to the country.”

Dorries was asked by Truss to stay on as culture secretary but chose instead to return to the backbenches when the new PM took over.

She has been critical of Truss, and on Sunday accused her of throwing Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng “under a bus” by saying the decision to cut the income tax paid by the wealthiest 1% had been made by him and not the cabinet.

Her latest comments hint at a sign of wider anger in the party after Truss and Kwarteng were forced to abandon their plan to abolish the top rate of income tax for the highest earners in an astonishing U-turn.

Downing Street said the prime minister continues to have confidence in the chancellor, despite the humiliating move to avert a Tory rebellion over their widely criticised strategy.

Asked about Dorries’ criticism at a party conference fringe event, business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “Nadine is wonderful. I don’t think there is going to be an immediate election and I don’t think there is a requirement for one”

Dorries is not the first person to attack Truss for junking much of the prospectus from the Tory’s 2019 election triumph.

Speaking at a fringe event, the co-author of that winning manifesto, Rachel Wolf, also criticised the prime minister for abandoning the promises of three years ago with no mandate from the country or parliament.

Labour also called for a general election after Boris Johnson resigned.

However, in her victory speech after winning the leadership race, Truss made it clear that she would not be calling one any time soon, instead pledging to secure “a great victory for the Conservative Party in 2024”.

ALSO READ-Boris Johnson bows out as UK PM

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UK to get new PM today

If Truss comes to power, she will be the third female Prime Minister of the UK after Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) and Theresa May (2016-2019)…reports Asian Lite News

Boris Johnson’s successor as the next UK Prime Minister will be revealed on Monday when either Liz Truss, the incumbent Foreign Secretary, or Rishi Sunak, the former Indian-origin Chancellor, will be named as leader of the ruling Conservative Party.

The name will be announced at 12.30 p.m. (around 5 p.m. IST) and the winner of the leadership race will take office on Tuesday after being formally appointed by Queen Elizabeth II, reports the BBC.

If Truss comes to power, she will be the third female Prime Minister of the UK after Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) and Theresa May (2016-2019).

If Sunak wins the race, he will make history as the first ever Indian-origin to hold the post and the the UK.

Tipped by pollsters to emerge as the winner, Truss has promised to announce further help to shield consumers within a week of taking over, says the BBC report.

She also plans to deliver 30 billion pounds in tax cuts through an emergency Budget later this month, arguing the UK’s tax burden is behind sluggish growth.

The Foreign Secretary is yet to offer details of her cost-of-living support plan beyond saying she will temporarily scrap green levies on energy bills and reverse the rise in National Insurance introduced during Johnson’s tenure.

While still hopeful, Sunak has signalled he believes he has lost, saying his job “now is just to support a Conservative government”.

The seven-week leadership contest will bring an end to Johnson’s turbulent three years in office, with Monday’s winner set to inherit a flagging economy, with inflation at a 40-year high, the BBC reported.

Johnson was forced out in July by a ministerial revolt over a string of scandals, just over two-and-a-half years after leading the Tories to a landslide victory at the 2019 election.

Although Sunak had the most support among Conservative MPs, he has trailed Truss in opinion polls of the party grassroots.

Johnson is expected to deliver a farewell speech upon leaving office on Tuesday, before the handover of power takes place.

ALSO READ-Sunak pledges to work night and day  

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Boris pledges £700 m to fund new N-plant

Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits Sizewell C Nuclear Power Station. Sizewell Power Station. Picture by Rory Arnold / No 10 Downing Street

Johnson will formally leave office on Tuesday, handing power to either Foreign Secretary Liz Truss or former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, the two finalists in the Conservative Party’s leadership race…reports Asian Lite News

Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday pledged £700 million of government funding for a planned new nuclear power plant as part of a drive to improve the UK’s energy security.

Johnson said the spike in global gas prices driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine showed why more nuclear generation capacity was needed in the UK.

The plant, called Sizewell C, is located on eastern England’s Suffolk coast. French energy company EDF, which will partly fund the project, has said it can generate low-carbon electricity for at least 60 years when the project is complete.

The plant will reportedly cost about 20 billion pounds. Britain’s government gave the greenlight for the plant in July, and talks about how to fund it are ongoing.

“Yes, nuclear always looks relatively expensive to build and to run,” Johnson said in his final major policy speech as prime minister. “But look at what’s happening today, look at the results of Putin’s war. It is certainly cheap by comparison with hydrocarbons today.”

Johnson added, “I say to you, with the prophetic candour and clarity of one who is about to hand over the torch of office, I say go nuclear and go large and go with Sizewell C.”

Johnson will formally leave office on Tuesday, handing power to either Foreign Secretary Liz Truss or former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, the two finalists in the Conservative Party’s leadership race.

Many in Britain are looking to Johnson’s successor to announce urgent measures to help ease the financial pain for millions of people who will struggle to heat their homes this winter as household energy prices go up by 80 per cent from October.

Britain wants to reduce its dependence on imported oil and gas and generate cheaper, cleaner power domestically. The government has said it wants 95 per cent of British electricity to come from low-carbon sources by 2030.

Earlier this year, the government tried to protect households against 90% of the expected increases in energy bills through tax cuts, energy bill rebates and direct payments. But natural gas and power prices have shot up since then, as have forecasts of future increases.

Researchers at the Institute for Government said Tuesday that the government would need to spend an extra £23 billion to protect households against about 90% of the expected rises in energy bills until April 2023. Offsetting the same proportion for the year to April 2024 would cost another £90 billion.

That forecast chimes with the cost of a proposal by Scottish Power, one of the UK’s biggest energy companies. It has called on the UK government to protect millions of households by freezing their bills for two years, according to report by the Financial Times.

The average annual bill currently stands at £1,971 ($2,318) — up 54% so far this year — but is forecast to shoot past £3,500 ($4,117) when the upper price limit is fixed Friday for the last three months of this year. Analysts at Auxilione, a research firm, say the average household could be paying as much as £6,433 ($7,579) a year for natural gas and electricity come next spring if the government doesn’t intervene.

ALSO READ-Truss rules out new taxes

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Sunak pledges to work night and day  

Sunak is looking to make history as Britain’s first Prime Minister of Indian-origin and has the overwhelming support of the Indian diaspora, many of whom have already voted in his favour as Conservative Party members…reports Asian Lite News

Rishi Sunak pledged to work “night and day” for the “best country in the world” as the election campaign to take over from Boris Johnson as the Conservative Party leader and the new British Prime Minister entered its final stage on Wednesday, with the very last hustings event set for London.

Sunak reiterated his vision statement as the first British Indian to run for the top job at 10 Downing Street ahead of the final campaign event scheduled at a popular concert venue in Wembley on Wednesday evening.

The former Chancellor will go head-to-head with his rival Foreign Secretary Liz Truss for one last time as they fight it out for any remaining Tory members yet to cast their ballots before voting closes on Friday evening.

The 42-year-old former finance minister, who has focussed his campaign message on the urgency of getting a grip on inflation and countered 47-year-old Truss’ claims that tax cuts are the answer to address the cost-of-living crisis crippling the UK economy, made a last-ditch effort to drive home his “consistent, clear and honest” vision.

“Britain is the best country in the world to grow up in, start a family and build a business, and our future looks bright. But we can only get there if we tackle the challenges we face in the short term head-on with honesty and a credible plan,” said Sunak, in a statement released by his Ready4Rishi campaign team on Tuesday night.

“I have the right plan, rooted in Conservative values, and I have been consistent, clear and honest throughout this contest that we must fix inflation first. Only by supporting people through this winter and gripping inflation can we lay the foundations for growth and prosperity for lower taxes, a better NHS and a healthy economy making full use of our Brexit freedoms,” he said.

“That’s my vision for Britain, and I’ll work night and day to deliver it for the party and country I love,” he added.

Sunak is looking to make history as Britain’s first Prime Minister of Indian-origin and has the overwhelming support of the Indian diaspora, many of whom have already voted in his favour as Conservative Party members.

After a dream run in the initial stages of the contest when his fellow members of Parliament voted resoundingly to elect him as one of two finalists, Sunak has been trailing in the surveys and bookie’s odds since the campaign widened to the Conservative Party membership across the country.

A fiercely loyal base of Johnson supporters who see Sunak as having triggered his early exit from Downing Street by resigning as the Chancellor in early July and Truss’ tax cutting pledge seem to be the dominating factors that have gone against the UK-born Indian-origin MP for Richmond in Yorkshire.

However, Sunak and his team have expressed optimism throughout the campaign and insisted that he would fight till the end for what he believes is the right vision for the country.

After a series of hustings events since last month, the voting in the leadership election will officially close at 1700 local time on Friday. By then, an estimated 160,000 Tory voters should have registered their ballots either by post or online.

“I am proud of the strong slate of candidates we’ve had for this contest, the most diverse range of candidates for any leadership election in British history, showing once again the Conservatives are the party of meritocracy,” said Conservative Party Chairman Andrew Stephenson, overseeing the election process.

The result of the ballot for a new Tory leader is set to be announced on Monday, with the winner going on to address his or her first Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons next Wednesday.

ALSO READ-Sunak’s warning for Truss in PM race

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Boris tops poll of post-war PMs to have failed

Asked to rate the performance of British prime ministers since 1945, some 49% of people told pollster Ipsos that Johnson had done a bad job during his time in Downing Street…reports Asian Lite News

Almost half of the public think Boris Johnson has done a bad job as prime minister, the worst rating of any post-war British leader, a new poll has found.

Asked to rate the performance of British prime ministers since 1945, some 49% of people told pollster Ipsos that Johnson had done a bad job during his time in Downing Street.

The figure was worse than those for both his immediate predecessors. Some 41% of people thought Theresa May had done a bad job, the second highest total, while David Cameron’s 38% was the third highest total.

While Johnson may have had the highest number of people saying he had done a bad job, he also had the fourth-highest number telling Ipsos he had done well.

Some 33% of the 1,100 people surveyed by Ipsos said he had done a good job in office, behind Tony Blair on 36%, and Margaret Thatcher on 43%.

Johnson’s political hero Winston Churchill came top out of the post-war prime ministers, with 62% saying he had done a good job.

Keiran Pedley, director of political research at Ipsos, said: “Winston Churchill continues to top our list of prime ministers the public think did a good job in office, followed by Margaret Thatcher.

“Boris Johnson will be reasonably content with finishing 4th on that list but less happy about topping the list for having done a bad job.”

Johnson, who is currently on a farewell tour of the country before he leaves office on Tuesday, was also one of the few post-war prime ministers to have more people say he had done a bad job than a good one.

His net rating in the Ipsos poll, which was carried out between August 19 and 22, was -16. David Cameron, on -8, and Theresa May, on -13, were the only others to have a negative net rating.

Pedley added: “However, there is a certain degree of recency bias in who tops the bad job list, with Johnson making up a top three with Theresa May and David Cameron. Time will tell how Johnson’s legacy is judged, as we see by improved scores for Gordon Brown over time, negative perceptions today may soften in the future.”

The number of people telling Ipsos that Gordon Brown did a good job rose from 24% in February 2021 to 31% in August 2022 while the number saying he did a bad job fell from 37% to 31%.

Other recent prime ministers including David Cameron, Theresa May and John Major also saw their scores improve.

ALSO READ-Boris salutes Gorbachev’s courage

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Truss, Sunak’s campaign highlights differing approaches

Foreign Secretary Truss has in contrast emerged as a favourite in the vote of grassroots Tory members, the result of which will be announced next Monday…reports Asian Lite News

Liz Truss will become Britain’s third female prime minister if she wins the Conservative leadership election, while rival Rishi Sunak hopes to be the first non-white incumbent in Downing Street.

The campaign, sparked by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation in July, has highlighted the pair’s differing approaches to tackling the country’s spiralling cost of living crisis.

Sunak, whose resignation as finance minister over a series of government scandals helped to spark the leadership contest, is considered a better public speaker.

But he has come under fire for clinging to fiscal orthodoxy to tackle runaway inflation and has been hamstrung by his image as a wealthy technocrat.

At the same time, he has faced accusations of treachery for bringing down the Tories’ Brexit hero Johnson.

Foreign Secretary Truss has in contrast emerged as a favourite in the vote of grassroots Tory members, the result of which will be announced next Monday

“She’s a better politician,” said John Curtice, a political scientist at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

“If you ask me what Liz Truss’s campaign was about I will immediately say to you: ‘a tax cut not a handout’. Very clear,” he said.

“There is no strapline for Sunak, nothing.”

For Curtice, Truss has effectively conveyed “traditional Conservative messages” to Tory members while Sunak has been more nuanced.

“It’s also a bit of a lecture,” he said, assessing that Sunak has come across as “a wee bit brittle” under pressure.

“You can see that she’s been in the game for longer,” he added.

Political journey

Truss, 47, has described her ascent towards the top of British politics as a “journey” that has seen her criticised for being ambitiously opportunistic.

She comes from a left-wing family and initially joined the centrist Liberal Democrats before jumping ship to the right-wing Conservatives.

She became MP for the South West Norfolk constituency in eastern England in 2010, surviving revelations of an affair that almost cost her the nomination.

Since 2012 she has held a series of ministerial posts in the education, finance and departments as well as a difficult spell in justice.

In 2016, she campaigned for the UK to remain in the European Union but quickly became one of its strongest supporters when Britons voted for Brexit.

When the UK left the EU, Johnson put her in charge of negotiating new free trade deals before appointing her as foreign secretary last year.

In the role, she took on the controversial task of trying to overhaul differences with Brussels about post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland.

Like Johnson, she has talked tough on Russia and given unswerving backing for Ukraine.

Truss’s dress sense and photo opportunities — posing in a tank in Estonia and wearing a fur hat in Moscow — have earned her comparisons to Tory icon Margaret Thatcher.

Her sometimes stiff style has become visibly more relaxed and allies have sought to soften her image, revealing her love of karaoke and socialising.

Establishment elite?

“For a party that’s gone in quite a populist direction in recent years, she’s been able to present herself as more authentic, more ordinary than Rishi Sunak, who is all too easily presented as part of the global elite,” said Tim Bale, from Queen Mary University of London.

“Like Boris Johnson, she is keen on the idea that there is some kind of elite that has to be countered and she sets herself up as being outside the establishment, despite having been in government for eight years.”

Sunak, 42, the grandson of Indian immigrants, grew up as the son of a doctor and a pharmacist in Southampton, on England’s south coast.

He attended the prestigious fee-paying Winchester College school, then Oxford University.

Truss, who went to a state school in Leeds, northern England, also studied at Oxford. Both studied politics, philosophy and economics.

Sunak met his wife, Akshata Murty, whose father founded the Indian tech giant Infosys, at US university Stanford before jobs at Goldman Sachs and investment funds.

He has represented the constituency of Richmond in northern England since 2015, where he was soon marked out as a potential future prime minister.

He became finance minister in early 2020, quickly winning plaudits for spearheading government support to people and businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

But Sunak, a self-confessed geek with a love of Star Wars, saw opinion turn against him this year, after it emerged that his wife did not pay UK tax.

Critics have also used his private wealth, expensive clothes and houses to portray him as out of touch with the ordinary public.

ALSO READ-Sunak attempts to catch up with Truss at Birmingham  

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Boris announces £54m military aid for Ukraine

The package comprises 850 hand-launched Black Hornet micro-drones, which are used to spot incoming enemy forces and are made particularly for use in cities and villages…reports Asian Lite News

As the war between Moscow and Kyiv entered its 183rd day on Thursday, the government announced an additional £54 million military aid package for Ukraine, including 2,000 cutting-edge drones and loitering bombs, to fight against the invading forces.

As per a press release, this announcement came upon the arrival of outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Kyiv on Wednesday. It is to mention that Ukraine marked 31 years of its independence on August 24.

On the occasion, PM told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that his nation “can and will win the war”, while urging the international community to continue supporting Kyiv as Britain staunchly defends its sovereignty six months after Putin’s “violent and unlawful” invasion. 

Furthermore, the Prime Minister discussed the government’s next significant package of support while meeting Zelenskyy to commemorate 31 years of Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union. According to the release, this support includes unmanned surveillance and anti-tank loitering munitions, which the Armed Forces of Ukraine have requested.

According to the release, the package comprises 850 hand-launched Black Hornet micro-drones, which are used to spot incoming enemy forces and are made particularly for use in cities and villages. The helicopter drones, which are smaller than a smartphone, can transmit live video and still photographs so that ground troops may safely protect metropolitan areas.

In order to assist Ukraine in finding Russian mines in the seas off its shore, the UK is also getting ready to offer its minehunting vehicles. In the upcoming weeks, Ukrainian troops will receive training on how to utilise them on UK seas. The UK also keeps up with the expansion of military training for Ukrainian soldiers.

Speaking about helping Ukraine with necessary aid to fight Russian aggression, PM Boris Johnson said, “For the past six months, the United Kingdom has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine, supporting this sovereign country to defend itself from this barbaric and illegal invader,” as per the release. He added, “Today’s package of support will give the brave and resilient Ukrainian Armed Forces another boost in capability, allowing them to continue to push back Russian forces and fight for their freedom.”

Meanwhile, for the first time in history, Britain is not importing any form of energy from Russia since the trade between the two nations has collapsed following the Kremlin’s command to invade Ukraine in February. According to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK’s imports from Russia fell by 97% in June and amounted to barely £33 million when sanctions went into force.

As per the ONS statistics, the government has already accomplished its goal of gradually ceasing imports of Russian oil by the end of 2022 and of liquefied natural gas as soon as possible beyond that date.

Notably, Britain has imported fuel from Russia on average of £499m in the 12 months prior to the conflict, but this amount has now fallen to zero, marking the first time this has happened since the recording started in 1997. According to the ONS, the UK has made up for this by bringing in more refined oil from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

Following the invasion of Ukraine, imports of other Russian commodities, notably vodka, have also completely stopped. In addition to significant extra taxes on some commodities, bans were issued on a variety of Russian products, including iron and steel, silver, gold, high-end goods, and wood products.

ALSO READ-Support for Ukraine must continue, says Boris

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‘Putin to blame for energy crisis’

Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits Ukraine. The Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a joint press conference with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, Ukraine where he also received Ukraine’s highest award that can be bestowed on foreign nationals, ‘The Order of Liberty’, for the UK’s staunch support of Ukraine’s freedom. Picture by Ukraine Government / No 10 Downing Street

Comparing the costs of Russia’s war, he said: “If we’re paying in our energy bills for the evils of Vladimir Putin, the people of Ukraine are paying in their blood.”…reports Asian Lite News

Vladimir Putin is to blame for British people being hit by high energy bills while Ukrainian people are “paying in their blood”, Boris Johnson has said as he made a final visit to Kyiv as prime minister.

In his third visit to the country since Russia invaded in the spring, Johnson urged the international community to “stay the course” in its support for Ukraine. The outgoing prime minister also told the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that Ukraine “can and will win the war”.

Comparing the costs of Russia’s war, he said: “If we’re paying in our energy bills for the evils of Vladimir Putin, the people of Ukraine are paying in their blood.”

Speaking from Kyiv, Johnson said: “What happens in Ukraine matters to us all, which is why I am here today to deliver the message that the United Kingdom is with you and will be with you for the days and months ahead, and you can and will win.”

Labour also released messages of support for Ukraine on its independence day. David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, said his party “stands in full solidarity with the Ukrainian people in their righteous struggle for democracy over dictatorship”. He called on the UK government and new prime minister to have a “laser-like focus on maintaining public support for the Ukrainian people, both in Britain and across the international community.

“At home, we need to freeze energy bills, insulate homes, and invest in green energy to limit the domestic impact of the conflict, which is exacerbating the cost of living emergency created by 12 years of failed Conservative energy policy,” Lammy said.

“Internationally, Britain needs to secure new diplomatic channels to work with our European partners to wean ourselves off Russia’s gas and to exert maximum pressure on Putin.”

ALSO READ-Putin accused of recruiting prisoners to fight Ukraine