Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks with the Australian prime Minister, Anthony Albanese on the phone from his office within No10 Downing Street. 10 Downing Street. Picture by Simon Walker / No 10 Downing Street
“The UK will be fully represented by other senior ministers, as well as COP President Alok Sharma.”…reports Asian Lite News
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pulled out of attending the COP27 climate summit which begins in Egypt next month to focus on domestic issues, his office said on Thursday.
Sunak became prime minister on Monday, and has delayed an autumn fiscal statement to Nov. 17 as he looks to tackle a cost-of-living crisis and restore credibility damaged in the short tenure of his predecessor Liz Truss.
“The Prime Minister is not expected to attend the summit in Egypt due to other pressing domestic commitments, including preparations for the autumn statement,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
“The UK will be fully represented by other senior ministers, as well as COP President Alok Sharma.”
PM Modi, Indian leaders congratulate Sunak for becoming UK PM
The interrupted India-UK FTA negotiations are expected to restart again. The talks have already missed the Diwali deadline, due to the apprehensions raised by Home Secretary Suella Braverman regarding the “open borders migration policy” with India…reports Asian Lite News
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to newly appointed UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday and congratulated him on taking charge as UK PM. Both leaders spoke about working together to strengthen the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and UK and also agreed to conclude the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as soon as possible.
“Glad to speak to @RishiSunak today. Congratulated him on assuming charge as UK PM. We will work together to further strengthen our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. We also agreed on the importance of early conclusion of a comprehensive and balanced FTA,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also thanked Prime Minister Modi for his kind words and expressed excitement about the future endeavors of the two democracies in deepening security, defense, and economic partnership.
The interrupted India-UK FTA negotiations are expected to restart again as Rishi Sunak takes over as the new Prime Minister. The negotiations have already missed the Diwali deadline, due to the apprehensions raised by Home Secretary Suella Braverman regarding the “open borders migration policy” with India.
Rishi Sunak has reappointed Braverman as Home Secretary and she may again pose a challenge to the deal. Her main contentions regarding open borders not being at variance with “what people voted for with Brexit,” and calling India as the largest group of people who “overstay visas,” are not taken well in the Indian power corridors.
However, in July, Rishi Sunak talked about benefiting Indian nationals with a change in Visa policy. “Our plan over time is to expand what we consider to be markers of high-potential individuals. The qualifying criteria for that visa (which applies to university students) will expand over time and will benefit Indian nationals. It’s an incredibly generous and powerful visa that will benefit Indian citizens who are studying at any of these global universities,” he said.
India and UK launched FTA negotiations in January this year and it is intended to cover 90% of the trade tariffs between both countries. The FTA aims to double the bilateral trade to about $100 billion by 2030. Currently, the trade between both countries in dominated by services which accounts for almost 70% of the total trade.
In a statement to BBC, Whittome’s office said: “Like Rishi Sunak, Ms Whittome is second-generation British India…reports Asian Lite News
Labour MP Nadia Whittome has deleted a tweet, which she posted earlier this week saying Rishi Sunak becoming Prime Minister “isn’t a win for Asian representation”.
Whittome was “instructed” to remove her tweet, a spokesman for Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer confirmed, after it drew backlash on social media, the BBC reported.
“Rishi Sunak as prime minister isn’t a win for Asian representation,” Whittome wrote in the tweet, which now stands deleted.
“He’s a multi-millionaire who, as chancellor, cut taxes on bank profits while overseeing the biggest drop in living standards since 1956. Black, white or Asian: if you work for a living, he is not on your side,” she added.
Whittome’s Punjabi Sikh father emigrated to the UK from Banga, Punjab at the age of 21. Her mother is an Anglo-Indian Catholic solicitor and former member of the Labour Party.
In a statement to BBC, Whittome’s office said: “Like Rishi Sunak, Ms Whittome is second-generation British Indian.
“Ms Whittome was pointing to Rishi Sunak’s record as chancellor to demonstrate that effective political representation of British Asian communities — and the interests of all working people — is about far more than the ethnicity of the prime minister.”
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, meanwhile, “welcomed” the appointment of Sunak as “the first British Asian Prime Minister”, describing it as a “real milestone for our country”.
But on being pressed by the Sky News on Wednesday to comment on the issue, he said: “The position of the Labour party is the position that I have set out. the whole Labour Party supports that, and we’re very, very pleased to do that”.
Whittome, a staunch critic of Sunak, had earlier tweeted: “Rishi Sunak and his wife sit on a fortune of 730,000,000 pounds. That’s around twice the estimated wealth of King Charles III. Remember this whenever he talks about making ‘tough decisions’ that working class people will pay for.”
She was elected in 2019 at the age of 23 as a member of the Labour party, and became the “Baby of the House” as the youngest MP.
Before her election, she was a hate crime worker, and prior to that a care worker while studying law at the University of Nottingham.
. Newly Appointed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak holds his first Cabinet Meeting the morning after assuming office. 10 Downing Street. Picture by Simon Walker / No 10 Downing Street
This was in contrast with Truss’s term, whose sweeping tax cut plan raised fears about the country’s fiscal health, triggering a crash in markets and the pound…reports Asian Lite News
Rishi Sunak on Wednesday defended the reappointment of party colleague Suella Braverman as the home secretary, ruled out an early election, and indicated “difficult decisions” will be taken soon for the economy, deflecting attacks from the Opposition in parliament on his first full day as premier.
Sunak and his Conservative Party have been under pressure to call general elections, not due until 2024, as Britain got its third PM in less than two months, with each taking significantly different policy lines than their predecessor.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt – retained in Sunak’s cabinet along with several other senior ministers – said that Monday’s planned “medium-term fiscal statement” was no longer so pressing.
Instead, there will be a full budget statement on November 17 to lay out the new government’s tax and spending plans, Hunt told reporters. Markets were unperturbed by the postponement, suggesting Hunt and Sunak have successfully calmed investors’ nerves.
This was in contrast with Truss’s term, whose sweeping tax cut plan raised fears about the country’s fiscal health, triggering a crash in markets and the pound.
In addition to the economic challenge that Sunak’s administration faces, he will also need to balance internal party politics and the international commitments. The key concern here stems from his induction of Braverman in one of the top four ministerial posts.
Braverman, 42, resigned from the cabinet of former prime minister Truss last week, having breached the ministerial code by sending secure information from her private email. Starmer asked Sunak: “Was the home secretary right to resign last week for a breach of security?” He noted that Sunak has promised to govern with “integrity, professionalism and accountability”, but points out that he has put in charge of the Home Office a woman forced to leave her job just a week ago.
“Have officials raised concerns about his decision to appoint her?” Starmer asked Sunak. On the issue of the reappointment of Braverman, Sunak said she made “an error of judgement,” but she had recognised the “mistake”.
Countering the Labour leader, Sunak said Braverman will be focused on “cracking down on criminals” and “defending borders”, while the party in opposition (Labour) remains “soft on crime” and in favour of “unlimited immigration”. A second complication with Braverman is her stance on UK’s trade deals with India. The UK is in talks with India over whether to increase the number of business visas to Indian nationals as part of a potential free trade agreement, a stance that risks causing friction with Braverman.
Indian-origin Conservative party politician Sunak on Tuesday officially became the Prime Minister after meeting King Charles III at Buckingham Palace…reports Asian Lite News
Congress Parliamentary Party Chairman Sonia Gandhi has congratulated UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and expressed hope that bilateral ties will be further strengthened.
“I am delighted at your taking over as Prime Minister of Great Britain. It is certainly a matter of pride for all of us in India.
“Indo-British relations have always been very special and I am confident that they will be further deepened during your tenure,” she said in a letter to Sunak.
Indian-origin Conservative party politician Sunak on Tuesday officially became the Prime Minister after meeting King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.
He is the UK’s third leader in seven weeks after winning a Tory leadership contest triggered by Liz Truss stepping down as the Prime Minister after around a month and a half in office.
Mordaunt formally announced her candidature in Friday evening. But was also said not to have managed the backing of sufficient fellow lawmakers…reports Asian Lite News
Rishi Sunak’s best chance of becoming prime minister of the UK lies in no other candidate mustering the support of 100 ruling Conservative party MPs — a minimum condition set by the 1922 Committee, authorised to conduct the election, as a qualifying mark.
That would mean a no contest for the leadership and he would automatically get the top job.
On the other hand, if either former prime minister Boris Johnson or Penny Mordaunt, who was leader of the House of Commons under Liz Truss, who threw in the towel as premier on her 45th day in office, crosses the threshold of support from 100 MPs, then a confirmatory vote by the wider membership of the Conservative party could be an uncertain prospect for Sunak. He lost to Truss at this stage in the summer.
BBC reported on Saturday morning Sunak ‘is set to officially enter the race to become the UK’s next prime minister’. It had also been indicating since Friday night that he was ‘the first to receive the support of 100 Conservative MPs’.
Johnson, who with his family was holidaying in the Caribbean island of Dominica, flew back to London on economy class on Saturday morning. There is growing speculation that he will run. But according to media reports on Saturday afternoon he had not obtained the endorsement of 100 MPs.
Mordaunt formally announced her candidature in Friday evening. But was also said not to have managed the backing of sufficient fellow lawmakers.
Mordaunt was third in that competition earlier this year which was won by Truss.
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.
The chancellor of the exchequer said no government could control markets — but stressed his action would give certainty over public finances and help secure growth…reports Asian Lite News
The British government on Monday axed almost all of its debt-fuelled tax cuts unveiled last month to avert fresh markets chaos, in a humiliating climbdown for embattled Prime Minister Liz Truss.
The shock move by new finance chief Jeremy Hunt, parachuted into the job on Friday to replace sacked Kwasi Kwarteng, leaves Truss’ position in a precarious state after a series of embarrassing U-turns.
The chancellor of the exchequer said no government could control markets — but stressed his action would give certainty over public finances and help secure growth.
“The most important objective for our country right now is stability,” he added in a contrite statement, ahead of setting out further details in parliament later Monday.
Hunt scrapped plans to axe the lowest rate of income tax, and curbed the government’s flagship energy price freeze — pulling the plug in April instead of late 2024.
A proposed reduction in shareholder dividend tax was also binned, along with planned tax-free shopping for tourists and a freeze on alcohol duty.
Truss fired her close friend Kwarteng on Friday after their recent tax-slashing budget sparked markets chaos — fuelling intense speculation over her political future one month after taking office.
His action sent the British pound jumping to $1.1346, while bond yields dipped.
Truss had already staged two embarrassing budget U-turns, scrapping tax cuts for the richest earners and on company profits.
“All departments will need to redouble their efforts to find savings, and some areas of spending will need to be cut.”
He met over the weekend with the governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, and the head of the Debt Management Office to discuss his plans.
The budget furore has reportedly sparked a plot to oust the prime minister.
“That sound you can hear is the death knell for Trussonomics, with the vast majority of her tax-cutting plans now consigned to the bin,” said Laura Suter, head of personal finance at stockbroker AJ Bell.
In two weeks’ time, Hunt will unveil his medium-term fiscal plan alongside independent economic forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
“All the chancellor’s statement underlines is that the damage has been done,” said its shadow finance minister Rachel Reeves.
On September 23, the government unveiled a 45-billion-pound tax cut package, the largest since 1972, to boost economic growth, but it threw financial markets into turmoil as the British pound collapsed to record lows and government borrowing costs rose sharply.
Investors are concerned that the tax-cutting measures will ramp up public borrowing, bring serious fiscal uncertainty and push up already high inflation.
To calm markets, the Bank of England announced temporary purchases of long-dated UK government bonds in the end of September, and later stepped up the measures, increasing the maximum size of the auctions and expanding bond buying to include index-linked gilts.
The central bank on Monday confirmed that it terminated these operations and ceased all bond purchases on Friday, noting that “these operations have enabled a significant increase in the resilience of the sector”.
Rishi Sunak vindicated
Rishi Sunak was vindicated in dramatic fashion on Monday when Britain’s new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, ripped up the economic policies on which Liz Truss was elected Tory party leader and prime minister.
As an increasing number of Tory MPs came out publicly for Truss to step down immediately, Hunt made an emergency statement and later addressed the Commons in an attempt to calm the markets.
Hunt, who took over when Kwasi Kwarteng was sacked, said in his statement: “We will reverse almost all the tax measures announced in the growth plan three weeks ago that have not started parliamentary legislation.”
In a tweet, Truss gave no indication she accepted blame for pursuing unfunded tax cuts – and not taking heed of the warnings Rishi had repeatedly given that she was “divorced from reality”.
The “Prime Minister In Name Only” (PINO), as Truss is now being called, said: “The British people rightly want stability, which is why we are addressing the serious challenges we face in worsening economic conditions. We have taken action to chart a new course for growth that supports and delivers for people across the United Kingdom.”
The BBC’s political editor, Faisal Islam, commented: “We have witnessed an utterly extraordinary un-budget, perhaps marking the biggest U-turn in British economic history….We may need new terminology. ‘U-turn’ suggests a controlled manoeuvre. This is like a plane trying to do the jet engine equivalent of a handbrake turn.”
On Monday, the Bank of England announced further intervention to shore up the markets by doubling the value of U.K. government bonds it can buy…reports Asian Lite News
Prime Minister Liz Truss on Monday handed a junior trade minister’s job to an ally of her leadership rival Rishi Sunak, in a move seen as an attempt to rally the governing Conservative Party behind her and curb rebellious moves on the backbenches.
Greg Hands, a vocal supporter of the former Indian-origin Chancellor, replaced Conor Burns as Minister of State in charge of Trade Policy in the Department for International Trade (DIT) after the latter was sacked recently following allegations of serious misconduct.
Hands was one of Sunak’s high-profile backers in the Conservative Party leadership contest and his inclusion was welcomed by other Sunak loyalists as a sign that Truss wants to build bridges with that faction of the party.
“No one is more experienced and knowledgeable than Greg Hands on trade. A welcome addition back to the Liz Truss government,” tweeted former Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, also a staunch Sunak supporter.
Sunak, the first British Indian candidate to compete for the top job at 10 Downing Street, was defeated in the Tory membership voting round last month after being a consistent frontrunner to replace Boris Johnson among the governing party’s MPs in the shortlisting phase of the leadership battle in July.
Hands said it was “an honour and a great privilege” to be part of the government, and is likely to also be involved in the ongoing India-U.K. free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations – believed to be in their final stages ahead of the proposed Diwali deadline.
The new appointment comes at a time when there are growing fears of a backbench discord within the Tory party since the government’s embarrassing U-turn over a key tax announcement abolishing the top rate of income tax for the wealthiest.
Truss and her Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, have been under pressure since the announcement of a mini-budget last month unleashed turmoil on the financial markets and sent the pound plummeting against the dollar.
On Monday, the Bank of England announced further intervention to shore up the markets by doubling the value of U.K. government bonds it can buy.
The central bank has said that it is ready to buy GBP 10 billion worth of bonds a day, double the GBP 5 billion a day it announced in the wake of the mini budget.
The government bonds, referred to as gilts, are used by the state to raise funds and the central bank had stepped in with the temporary measure of buying long-dated gilts in an effort to protect the country’s pension funds and calm the markets.
Meanwhile, Kwarteng has brought forward a planned fiscal statement to October 31 – nearly a month ahead of its previous schedule of November 23.
The UK’s Treasury department announced that the so-called “Medium-Term Fiscal Plan” along with an independent Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast will now be published at the end of this month instead.
The fiscal statement is expected to detail how the Chancellor intends to pay for the nearly GBP 45-billion worth of tax cuts announced in the mini-budget and also how he plans to reduce the country’s debt.
There had been mounting pressure on the government to bring forward the fiscal announcement in order to curb fears over spiralling debt and unfunded tax cuts impacting already soaring inflation and interest rates.
Earlier on Tuesday, Truss was invited by the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II to head the UK’s government after she won a leadership contest in the ruling Conservative party on Monday…reports Asian Lite News
As a first major step, Britain’s new Prime Minister Elizabeth Truss, the third woman to be at the apex of a British government, could freeze household energy bills at their current level for about 18 months to tackle the severe cost of living crisis that has gripped the country. Financial Times estimated such an intervention could cost the British Treasury 100 billion pounds.
The Guardian newspaper maintained Truss will pack her cabinet with loyalists and there was unlikely to be any place in it for her defeated opponent in the 8-week race for the premiership Rishi Sunak, who is of Indian extraction. It reported that Kwasi Kwarteng could replace him as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Meanwhile, Sunak extended his ‘full support’ to Truss.
The Bank of England, the United Kingdom’s central bank, had forecast about the month ago that the British economy would sink into recession in the next quarter and remain in such a condition for five consecutive quarters. The proposed subsidy, while welcome for Britons wilting under extraordinary energy prices, will impose a further burden on the government’s finances.
Furthermore, it indicated that Home Secretary Priti Patel was destined to be banished to the back benches, with another person of Indian origin Suella Braverman filling her post. With James Cleverly tipped to become Foreign Secretary — a position Truss occupied — only Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, could retain his portfolio among the top four ‘great offices of state’. It remains to be seen if Alok Sharma retains a presence in the cabinet.
Earlier on Tuesday, Truss was invited by the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II to head the UK’s government after she won a leadership contest in the ruling Conservative party on Monday.
The day of constitutional formalities began on Tuesday with Boris Johnson finally leaving 10 Downing Street, the office-cum-residence of a British prime minister, after he was forced to resign following being fined by the London Metropolitan Police for attending social gatherings in violation of rules during a Covid lockdown period. He was also accused of misleading parliament on the issue, which is traditionally a sackable offence in the UK.
However, in a farewell speech outside the door of Number 10, he described himself as a ‘booster rocket’ which had ‘fulfilled its function’, before flying to Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where Elizabeth, 96, is presently in residence, to submit his resignation. Normally she grants audiences for such purposes at Buckingham Palace in London; but could not make the trip down to the British capital because she now suffers from ‘episodic mobility issues’.
Prime Minister @TrussLiz chaired the first meeting of her Cabinet this morning.
The PM outlined Cabinet’s mission to build a stronger, safer, more competitive and aspirational United Kingdom. pic.twitter.com/dlo3QjSksF
Johnson journey was followed by Truss separately undertaking the same trip to be formally asked by Britain’s head of state to form the next administration.
The process completed a remarkable exhibition of revolving door politics, with Truss becoming the UK’s fourth prime minister in six years.
The instability began in June 2016 with David Cameron stepping down after he lost the Brexit vote.
He was succeeded by Theresa May, Britain’s second woman prime minister after Margaret Thatcher, until she was ousted by her MPs and Johnson took over the reins.
