Tag: sunak

Categories
-Top News UK News

Advantage Truss

Sunak was trailing 62% to 38% in YouGov’s poll of Conservative members, who will begin voting next week and will have time up to September 2 next to do so, reportsAshis Ray…reports Asian Lite News

Liz Truss, the incumbent caretaker Foreign Secretary in deposed UK Prime Minister Boris Johnsons government, beat her rival Rishi Sunak, the Indian-origin former Chancellor, according to a survey of ruling Conservative party members, the electoral college to choose the winner.

Forty-seven per cent of respondents to pollster Opinium sounding them out felt Truss performed better versus 38 per cent who thought likewise about Sunak.

However, Sunak marginally defeated Truss, again according to Opinium, in a poll of regular voters who watched the debate. Thirty-nine per cent said Sunak won, while 38 per cent stated Truss did.

The debate held at Stoke-on-Trent, a town in the west midlands of England, was hot-tempered and combative in which Sunak was noticeably aggressive, often talking over his opponent.

Sunak was trailing 62 per cent to 38 per cent in YouGov’s poll of Conservative members, who will begin voting next week and will have time up to September 2 next to do so. It would appear he did not make up sufficient ground with this constituency as yet to turn the tables on Truss.

Clearly, Sunak’s strategy was to attack. Several viewers interviewed after the debate thought his constant interruptions were ‘rude’ and they sounded as if they were displeased by such behaviour. It was certainly un-British tactics.

The two contenders clashed on tax cuts — Sunak sticking to doing so later, Truss promising it will be as soon as she comes prime minister.

On British policy towards China, both agreed this should be tough. Sunak said Truss was on a ‘journey’ when it came to China, alleging she had previously argued in favour of a ‘golden age’ in the UK’s relations with the country. Ultimately, they concurred on a clampdown on companies like TikTok.

Regarding loyalty to Johnson, Sunak resigned as chancellor of the exchequer thereby precipitating Johnson’s end, while Truss remained as a caretaker foreign secretary. Both attempted to justify their opposite stances.

The debate took place against the background of the London Metropolitan Police, which fined Johnson for partying during the Covid pandemic in violation of prevalent laws, not apparently sending a questionnaire on the matter to the Prime Minister.

In effect, it did not investigate him as thoroughly as it ought to have.

On Monday, the Met, popularly known as Scotland Yard, effectively admitted in court that it had not fully probed Johnson.

The Good Law Project, a non-profit campaign group which petitioned a judicial review of the case, said: “We don’t think the Met’s response is consistent with their legal duty of candour.”

Johnson’s troubles escalated with media scoops making public last December that socialising had taken place rampantly at his office-cum-residence during the Covid lockdown.

He seems to be backing Truss rather than Sunak in the race to replace him.

Earlier, the YouGov survey also revealed that Truss extends its lead over Rishi Sunak as she gained 24-points.

Now, the two had finally announced and their summer campaign began, a new YouGov poll of Tory members suggests that Truss retains her strong advantage.

According to the survey, 31 per cent of the members intends to vote for Rishi Sunak, while 49 per cent intend to vote for Liz Truss. A further 15 per cent currently don’t know how they will vote, and 6 per cent currently tell us they will abstain.

This puts the headline voting intention at 62 per cent for Truss and 38 per cent for Sunak (i.e. after people who are currently unsure or won’t vote are excluded) – a 24-point lead for the foreign secretary.

The Tory leadership race was triggered after Johnson was forced to step down on July 7 amid an avalanche of resignations of government officials, who protested against his scandal-plagued leadership. Johnson will continue to serve as caretaker prime minister until a new Tory leader succeeds him.

ALSO READ-Truss, Sunak vow crackdown on migration

Categories
-Top News UK News

Sunak pledges major crackdown on sex offenders

Sunak said as chancellor he boosted support for victims to record levels — quadruple those under Labour — and a ground-breaking new approach to policing which is helping drive up prosecutions of sex offenders…reports Asian Lite News

Rishi Sunak has vowed to hunt down and stamp out grooming gangs who prey on children and young women, and make their ringleaders subject to maximum life sentences as part of his campaign pledge to be elected Conservative Party leader and the next British Prime Minister.

Under a government headed by him, the Ready4Rishi campaign team said on Wednesday evening that members of grooming rings will automatically face criminal charges for belonging to or facilitating the activity of the gang, with those at its heart facing life sentences.

In a further crackdown on sex offenders, the former chancellor will ban so-called “down-blousing”, where perpetrators take photos down a woman’s top without their consent to curb abuse targeted at women and bring more offenders to justice.

“Sexual violence against women and girls should be treated as a national emergency until it has been defeated. As a father of two girls, I want them to be able to go for a walk in the evening or to a shop at night without any fear of threat,” said Sunak, father to schoolgirls Anoushka and Krishna.

Sunak said as chancellor he boosted support for victims to record levels — quadruple those under Labour — and a ground-breaking new approach to policing which is helping drive up prosecutions of sex offenders.

“As the Prime Minister I will go further. I will make it a criminal offence if you harass women by taking intimate images of them without their consent and will introduce a major crackdown on grooming gangs,” he said.

“We cannot let sensitivities over race stop us from catching dangerous criminals who prey on women and I will not stop until we live in a society where women and girls can go about their daily lives feeling safe and secure,” he said.

The British Indian former Finance Minister, who is married to Akshata Murty – the daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, said he would set up a new emergency taskforce working at the heart of the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to launch an investigation into any town or city where significant grooming gang activity has been found and root it out.

If elected to succeed Boris Johnson as the Prime Minister, Sunak promises to force suspects to explain why they have the phone numbers or contact details of children. They will also have to reveal their ethnicity or nationality for the purposes of crime prevention.

He also plans to launch a National Grooming Gangs Whistleblower Network to gather intelligence on gangs and create a dedicated database to help the police monitor suspects.

Besides, the focus will be on boosting training for frontline police to help them identify victims of grooming gangs and remind officers to serve without fear or favour, including the fear of being accused of racism.

“Rishi will give the Justice Secretary a final say over parole decisions for dangerous criminals. His government will personally review and consider denying parole for any gang member convicted of rape who still posed a risk after serving their sentence,” reads his campaign statement.

“He will pass the Bill of Rights to help prevent any foreign perpetrators using the Human Rights Act to frustrate their deportation orders,” it said.

The former frontline Cabinet Minister said he would build on the support for victims he funded as Chancellor — 192 million pounds a year by 2024-25, including funding 1,000 sexual violence advisers — by extending mental health support for rape victims to be available to them for life.

He will also ensure all survivors of sexual violence have access to same-sex spaces, his campaign said.

ALSO READ-Boris likely to be new NATO Chief

Categories
-Top News UK News

Now, Boris says he doesn’t want to quit

Boris Johnson told former treasurer Peter Cruddas that he “does not want to resign” as UK prime minister and wishes he could “wipe away” his departure…reports Asian Lite News

Boris Johnson told former treasurer Peter Cruddas that he “does not want to resign” as UK prime minister and wishes he could “wipe away” his departure, The Telegraph reported on Monday.

Johnson also told Cruddas over lunch on Friday that he “wants to fight the next general election as leader of the Conservative Party,” the report said.

“There was no ambiguity in Boris’s views. He definitely does not want to resign. He wants to carry on and he believes that, with the membership behind him, he can,” the report quoting Cruddas as saying.

Lord Cruddas told the Telegraph: “There was no ambiguity in Boris’s views. He definitely does not want to resign. He wants to carry on and he believes that, with the membership behind him, he can.”

The peer added: “Boris thanked me for my ‘Boris on the ballot’ campaign. He said he was enjoying following it and he wished me well. He said he could understand the membership’s anger at what had happened.

“He said that he wished that he could carry on as Prime Minister. He said he does not want to resign.”

The paper said Johnson, when asked by the peer if he would “wipe away” his resignation immediately with “a magic wand”, reportedly replied: “I would wipe away everything that stops me being PM in a second.”

Lord Cruddas, who said 10,000 party members have backed the campaign, added: “He wants to carry on to finish the job. He wants to fight the next general election as leader of the Conservative Party.”

However, No. 10 said: “The Prime Minister has resigned as party leader and set out his intention to stand down as PM when the new leader is in place.”

In his final appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions, Johnson said “mission largely accomplished, for now” before signing-off by telling MPs: “Hasta la vista, baby.”

The Spanish term “hasta la vista” translates to “see you later”, but “hasta la vista, baby” is the catchphrase of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cyborg character in the 1991 movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Johnson’s comments left the door open for a possible comeback, with the Terminator also known for the catchphrase: “I’ll be back.”

Truss, Sunak spar over tax in TV debate

The two candidates vying to be Britain’s next prime minister sparred Monday over how to help families struggling with the soaring cost of living, meeting in a testy televised debate that highlighted the contrasting economic visions of the Conservative Party rivals.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss promised to cut taxes as soon as she took office, using borrowing to pay for it. Former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak said he would get inflation under control first, arguing that Truss’s plan would increase the public debt and leave people worse off in the long run.

Tempers flared as Sunak said that “it’s not moral to ask our children to pick up the tab for the bills that we’re not prepared to pay.” Truss called that “Project Fear” and said it was sensible to borrow to rebuild from the coronavirus pandemic, a “once in a 100-year event.”

The pair are battling to succeed Boris Johnson, who quit as leader of the governing Conservative Party on July 7 after months of ethics scandals triggered a mass exodus of ministers from his government. The contest has exposed deep divisions within the party as it tries to move on from the tarnished, but election-winning Johnson.

Oddsmakers say Truss is the favorite to win. She outperforms Sunak in polls of Conservative members — though Sunak has the edge among voters as a whole.

The winner will be chosen by about 180,000 Conservative Party members and will automatically become prime minister, governing a country of 67 million. Party members will vote over the summer, with the result announced Sept. 5. Johnson remains caretaker prime minister until his successor is chosen.

Truss, 46, and Sunak, 42, have wooed Conservatives by doubling down on policies thought to appeal to the right-wing Tory grassroots, including a controversial plan to deport some asylum-seekers to Rwanda.

The government says the policy will deter people-traffickers from sending migrants on hazardous journeys across the Channel. Political opponents, human rights organizations and even a few Conservative lawmakers say it is immoral, illegal and a waste of taxpayers’ money.

The first scheduled deportation flight was grounded after legal rulings last month, and the whole policy is now being challenged in the British courts.

Hard-line policies like the Rwanda plan are less popular with voters as a whole than with Conservatives, but the British electorate won’t get a say on the government until the next national election, due by the end of 2024.

The leadership election is taking place during a cost-of-living crisis driven by soaring food and energy prices, partly due to the war in Ukraine. While many countries are experiencing economic turbulence, in Britain it’s compounded by the country’s departure from the European Union, which has complicated travel and business relations with the U.K.’s biggest trading partner.

Both Sunak and Truss are strong supporters of Brexit, which was the signature policy of the Johnson government. Both denied Brexit was responsible for huge queues of vehicles waiting to cross to France at the port of Dover in recent days.

Sunak is running as the candidate of fiscal probity, while Truss has positioned herself as a disruptor who will “challenge orthodoxy” and “get things done.”

The two sparred on topics such as policy toward China, with Truss accusing Sunak of changing his stance on relations with Beijing.

Sunak says that China represents the “biggest-long term threat to Britain” and that if elected he would close the 30 Confucius Institutes in Britain. Funded by the Chinese government, the institutes teach Chinese language and culture, but have been accused of spreading pro-Beijing propaganda.

ALSO READ-Channel 4 to tell the story of Boris from Eton to No. 10

Categories
-Top News UK News

‘Next PM will inherit a mess’

Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits Ukrainian troops. Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits Ukrainian troops being trained by British Armed Forces in North Yorkshire. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

This means running on campaign issues that the candidates believe are most likely to appeal to this very small and hardly diverse group of people…reports Asian Lite News

The next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will inherit a mess that some members of the governing Conservative Party believe will be impossible to manage, media reports said.

With just six weeks until Boris Johnson’s walks through the famous black door of 10 Downing Street, the two remaining candidates are making a bad situation worse by rubbing acid into the wounds of a party so badly divided it could be forced to call an early election and hope for the best, CNN reported.

Johnson’s replacement will not be elected by the 47 million adults registered to vote, but by a much smaller group of around 160,000 grassroots Conservative Party members. The winner will be announced on September 5.

This means running on campaign issues that the candidates believe are most likely to appeal to this very small and hardly diverse group of people.

“The average age of a party member is late 50s. Just under half are of a pensionable age and they are predominately White,” says Tim Bale, who is professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London and has studied the Conservative Party extensively.

“They mostly live in southern England and are (financially) comfortable. They support a strong line on law and order, they approve of low taxes but believe that public services are important and should be funded properly, especially schools, police and, of course, the health service,” Bale adds.

Unsurprisingly, given the cost-of-living crisis, the main issue of debate has been how to handle the economy. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who is one of the two, is calling for a different approach from Johnson’s tax rises, and claims that cutting taxes immediately would create growth. Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak argues that he believes this is fantasy economics, given the UK is still recovering from the economic shock of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Seconds after it was decided the final two were Truss and Sunak, an even less optimistic Conservative MP told CNN: “We’ve just lost the next election.”

The job of reinventing and uniting the party, which has been struggling in the polls for months and publicly flagellating itself for almost as long, would be tough for anyone. It will be even harder for either of the leadership contenders, both of whom have their hands dirty from previous government jobs and whose supporters have been flinging mud at one another over a long, hot summer, CNN reported.

And if the warring factions cannot overcome these differences, they may find that they’ve wrecked their own chances of staying in power and hand the keys over to an opposition party that’s been locked out of Downing Street since 2010, CNN reported.

ALSO READ-Truss, Sunak vow crackdown on migration

Categories
-Top News UK News

Truss, Sunak vow crackdown on migration

More than 14,000 migrants have crossed the Channel to the UK on small boats so far this year. In an attempt to deter the crossings, in April the government announced it would send some asylum seekers deemed to have entered the UK illegally to Rwanda to claim refuge there…reports Asian Lite News

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have vowed to toughen controls on migration into the UK as part of their bids to become next Tory leader and prime minister.

Sunak said he would tighten the definition of who qualifies for asylum and introduce a cap on refugee numbers.

Truss said she would extend the UK’s Rwanda asylum plan and increase the number of Border Force staff.

More than 14,000 migrants have crossed the Channel to the UK on small boats so far this year. In an attempt to deter the crossings, in April the government announced it would send some asylum seekers deemed to have entered the UK illegally to Rwanda to claim refuge there.

However, no asylum seekers have been sent to the east-African country yet following a series of legal challenges.

The UK stands to lose the £120m it has paid to Rwanda if the plan is ruled unlawful by the courts at an upcoming hearing.

Both leadership hopefuls said they would explore similar deals with other countries.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told the Mail on Sunday the Rwanda policy was the right approach and that she was determined to “see it through to full implementation”.

Truss also said that if she became Tory Party leader and prime minister, she would increase Border Force staffing from 9,000 to 10,800.

She has also promised a strengthened UK bill of rights, adding: “I’m determined to end the appalling people trafficking we’re seeing.”

Former chancellor Sunak has also pledged to do “whatever it takes” to make the Rwanda scheme work and described the UK’s migration policy as “broken” and “chaotic”.

His plans would see the UK re-assessing aid, trade terms and visa options on the basis of a country’s willingness to co-operate with the return of failed asylum seekers and offenders.

He has also promised to give Parliament control over how many come to the UK by creating an annual cap on the number of refugees accepted each year, though this could be changed in the case of emergencies.

And he said he would introduce “enhanced powers” to detain, tag and monitor those entering the UK illegally.

He said: “Right now the system is chaotic, with law-abiding citizens seeing boats full of illegal immigrants coming from the safe country of France with our sailors and coastguards seemingly powerless to stop them.”

But shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper criticised the pair’s proposals, saying they were wasting taxpayers’ money on the Rwanda scheme.

She said: “The Conservatives have been in power for 12 years. It beggars belief that they claim to be the ones to sort things out when they have both failed for so long.”

Last month, 47 people were told they would be flown to Rwanda, with a flight booked for 14 June. But after a series of legal challenges the flight was cancelled.

Another flight has not yet been scheduled.

Earlier this week, a Commons select committee cast doubt on the effectiveness of the scheme, saying there was “no clear evidence” it would stop risky Channel crossings.

Truss rejected Sunak’s criticism that it would be wrong to raise government borrowing to fund tax cuts – a major policy difference between the candidates.

She is pledging around £30bn in immediate tax cuts, arguing they will boost growth, while Mr Sunak has said immediate cuts could fuel already-soaring inflation.

Conservative Party members are due to start receiving ballot papers this week and the winner will be announced on 5 September.

Sunak, who quit as part of the government mutiny against Boris Johnson, topped the MPs’ ballots to qualify for the final run-off with Truss. But polls currently suggest the foreign secretary is the favoured candidate of party members, who decide the leader.

It is thought a significant chunk of the 160,000 or so Tory members will vote in the coming weeks.

Hustings will take place throughout July and August, and the two candidates will square off in a live BBC TV debate on Monday, followed by another hosted by The Sun and TalkTV on Tuesday.

Bookmakers bet on Truss

Truss has undergone a political reinvention to become the favorite to succeed Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative party and UK Prime Minister.

The Foreign Secretary campaigned for Britain to remain in the European Union before embracing Brexit with the zeal of a convert after the vote went the other way. And she’s gone from yelling slogans as a child against Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s Conservative government and leading Oxford University’s Liberal Democrat society to become the darling of the Tory Party right.

“My parents were left-wing activists, and I’ve been on a political journey ever since,” Truss said in an ITV debate of Tory leadership candidates on Sunday. On Thursday, she told BBC radio that she’d got it wrong on Brexit.

Now, Truss stands six weeks — and one ballot — away from claiming the top job in UK politics, with only former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak standing in her way. British bookmakers have installed her as the favorite, and polling of party members by YouGov suggests she’ll soundly defeat her opponent in the runoff vote among the party grassroots.

Truss grew up in Scotland and then Leeds, where she attended a comprehensive school before going on to Oxford University to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics. She then worked for Shell as an industrial economist before moving to Cable & Wireless and the think-tank Reform.

ALSO READ-Truss vows to scrap all EU laws by next year

Categories
-Top News UK News

Mordaunt eliminated as Sunak and Truss reach final

The four survivors were former Sunak (115 votes), Mordaunt (82 votes), Truss (71 votes), and Badenoch (58 votes)…reports Asian Lite News

Former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss emerged as the final two candidates in the Tory leadership race after Penny Mordaunt was knocked out of the contest on Wednesday.

International Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt was knocked out in the final round of ballot among Conservative lawmakers. Rishi Sunak won 137 votes, while Truss received 113 in the final round, reported Xinhua.

The two will now go through a postal ballot among all Conservative Party members, numbering around 200,000, over the summer. The winner, to be announced on September 5, will automatically become UK’s next Prime Minister, replacing outgoing Boris Johnson.

Rishi Sunak, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, topped the first round with 88 votes, according to Graham Brady, chair of the Conservative Backbench 1922 Committee.

The other five survivors were International Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt (67 votes), Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (50 votes), former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch (40 votes), Backbench lawmaker Tom Tugendhat (37 votes) and Attorney General Suella Braverman (32 votes).

Subsequently, four candidates made it to the Tory leadership race to replace outgoing Boris Johnson as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK) after the third round of voting concluded on July 18. Tom Tugendhat, House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, was knocked out of the race as he received the fewest votes.

The four survivors were former Sunak (115 votes), Mordaunt (82 votes), Truss (71 votes), and Badenoch (58 votes).

Indian-origin former UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak retained the lead in the fourth round of voting on Tuesday to succeed Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister, while one candidate was eliminated.

Sunak came on top with 118 votes, followed by Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt with 92 votes and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss with 86 votes. Former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch was eliminated from the contest, reducing the number of contestants to three, according to the 1922 Committee of Conservative Party backbenchers.

Boris Johnson replaced Theresa May as prime minister in 2019 and announced on July 7 that he was stepping down as prime minister and leader of the UK Conservative Party.

A total of 58 ministers quit the government following an ethics scandal which ultimately forced the UK premier to resign. Johnson, 58, managed to remain in power for almost three years, despite allegations that he was too close to party donors, that he protected supporters from bullying and corruption allegations, and that he misled Parliament and was dishonest to the public about government office parties that broke pandemic lockdown rules.

Johnson would continue to remain in office until October as caretaker prime minister until a new Tory leader is elected.

Johnson, who won a landslide victory in the general elections in 2019, lost support after he was caught in a string of scandals, including the ‘Party Gate’ scandal and the Pincher scandal involving his appointment of a politician accused of sexual misconduct. (ANI)

ALSO READ-Truss backs Turkey to join Rwanda scheme

Categories
-Top News UK News

Sunak maintains lead in Tory leadership race

Sunak is now all but certain to be one of the two candidates on the final ballot for Conservative party members, media reports said…reports Asian Lite News

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak on Tuesday hung on his lead in the race to select the next leader of the Conservative Party – and the Prime Minister, extending his lead in the fourth round to nearly a third of all votes.

Sunak secured 118 votes, three more than in the fourth round, while both his challengers – Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss remained in double digits, the BBC reported.

It was curtains for Nigerian-origin, former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch, who came last with 59 votes and drops out.

Sunak is trailed by Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt with 92 votes, 10 more votes since Monday, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was third with 86 votes, having gained 15 votes.

The final round will be on Wednesday leaving just two candidates, and then, it is Conservative Party members around the country, who will make the final decision, to be announced on September 5.

Sunak is now all but certain to be one of the two candidates on the final ballot for Conservative party members, media reports said.

He is now on 115 votes and once a candidate gets 120 (just over a third of the total), it is mathematically impossible for two other candidates to get more votes. Sunak is also particularly well placed to pick up many of the 31 Tom Tugendhat votes now up for grab; Sunak, like Tugendhat, presents as a mainstream pragmatist, not an ideological rightwinger, the Guardian reported.

Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt are now the two strongest candidates in the contest to be the second person on the final ballot. One recent survey suggested both would beat Sunak in the final poll, but Truss more comfortably than Mordaunt, it said.

Almost certainly, Sunak’s chances would be better against Mordaunt; her lack of experience means the risk of her campaign imploding under scrutiny remains high (over the last week her popularity has already fallen significantly), and Truss, unlike Mordaunt, would be guaranteed the support of the Tory right en masse.

Kemi Badenoch looks likely to be eliminated on Tuesday afternoon. It is not inevitable – she has defied expectations already – but she remains 13 votes behind Truss, and may struggle to get much of the Tugendhat vote. If she does fall out, her votes will be for grabs on Wednesday – and would decide whether Sunak faces Truss or Mordaunt, which could in turn determine who gets elected as the next PM, The Guardian reported.

ALSO READ-Rishi Sunak tops poll

Categories
-Top News UK News

Democracy’s diversity: Sunak takes it forward

Sunak and Braverman’s fellow Indian-origin Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, chose to sit it out…writes Vikas Dutta

It could be called democracy’s diversity, or even colonialism’s counterblast. The race to succeed UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson by becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party, which espoused the Empire, imperialism and British national identity, has been swamped with contenders from former colonies in Asia and Africa. And at the end of the preliminary rounds, the son of immigrants from British East Africa was on top.

Rishi Sunak, UK’s former Chancellor of the Exchequer, or Finance Minister, whose sudden resignation set in motion the circumstances that forced an intransigent Johnson to finally bow out, has emerged the main contender at the end of two rounds of voting by the 358 Conservative MPs.

Picking up a quarter of the votes in the first round, he became the only one to get over three digits in the second round — and is followed by three women present and former ministers.

The initial race had a ethnically diverse list of candidates — British Pakistani ministers Sajid Javid and Rehman Chishti, Sunak’s Iraqi Kurd-born successor Nadhim Zahawi, Attorney General Suella Braverman, whose family’s roots are in Goa, and Nigerian-origin former minister Kemi Badenoch.

Sunak and Braverman’s fellow Indian-origin Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, chose to sit it out.

Javid and Chishti failed to get enough traction to even figure in the race, Zahawi bowed out after the first round, and Braverman after the second, leaving Sunak and Badenoch to contend against Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, and Tom Tugendhat, the backbench MP, who happens to be half-French.

It’s early days for Sunak, who has emphasised that identity of a person born in the UK but with origins elsewhere matters to him. He has to remain in the reckoning till there are only two contenders left in the race, at which point the decision will be left to the rank-and-file Conservative Party members across the cities, shires, hills and dales across the British Isles.

Suave, efficient, but also controversy-ridden, the former US-based investment banker, hedge fund operator, and three-time MP still has a chance to become the first non-ethnic Briton to become Prime Minister.

This, though, will not be entirely unusual — for such staunch British PMs as Winston Churchill and Harold Macmillan happened to be half-American (on their mothers’ side) and Johnson was born in the US, becoming the first non-UK-born Prime Minister since Andrew Bonar Law nearly a century ago (Bonar Law, however, was born in Canada, which was a part of the Empire.)

Born in Southhampton on May 12, 1980, Sunak is the son of (the then British) Kenya-born Yashvir Sunak and his wife, Tanganyika-born Usha, who grandparents were born in the Punjab Province of British India, and migrated to East Africa, and from there to the UK in the 1960s.

“My parents emigrated here, so you’ve got this generation of people who are born here, their parents were not born here, and they’ve come to this country to make a life,” he said in an interview with the BBC in 2019.

“In terms of cultural upbringing, I’d be at the temple at the weekend — I’m a Hindu — but I’d also be at (Southampton Football Club) the Saints game as well on a Saturday — you do everything, you do both,” he said, also revealing that he was fortunate not to have endured a lot of racism growing up, save for one incident, when he was with his younger siblings.

With his father a general practitioner, and his mother, a pharmacist, he had an easy childhood. He studied at a prep school in Hampshire, and then he was at the prestigious Winchester College, where he was head boy and editor of the school paper; during vacations, he worked at local curry restaurant.

Oxford was the next stop and he graduated in 2001. The same year, he was interviewed along with his parents for the BBC documentary “Middle Classes: Their Rise and Sprawl”. He was an analyst at investment bank Goldman Sachs till 2004, and then a hedge fund management firm till 2009, when he left to join former colleagues at a new hedge fund launched in October 2010.

In 2009, he married Akshata, daughter of Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy and writer Sudha Murthy, who’s also the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation. Sunak and Akshata have two daughters.

Engaged with the Conservative Party since his Oxford days, Sunak got into politics full-time in 2014 when was selected for the Richmond seat in north Yorkshire — one of the safest Conservative seats, which has been held by the party for more than a century — and won it in the 2015 elections by nearly 20,000 votes.

He retained it in the 2017, and 2019 elections, with increased majorities. His predecessor as Richmond MP was William Hague, now Baron Hague of Richmond, who held important cabinet position, Including Foreign Secretary, and was Leader of the House of Commons,

A staunch proponent of “Leave” in the Brexit referendum of 2016 and subsequent parliamentary votes, Sunak’s first government job was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government (2018-19) in the Theresa May government and then as Chief Secretary to the Treasury (2019-20) in the government of Johnson, whose leadership bid he had supported.

He replaced his boss Javid as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2020, and while he mostly earned plaudits for steering the government’s economic response to the effects of the Covid-19 lockdown, he also became the first Chancellor to be found to have broken the law while in office by breaching lockdown norms.

His wife’s non-domicile status, which let her save huge amount of taxes in the country, also became a major controversy for him.

It is Sunak’s “treachery”, which set off the spate of resignations that forced Johnson’s resignation, that may just queer his chances to become Prime Minister.

ALSO READ-Sunak still on top, Braverman out

Categories
-Top News UK News

Sunak still on top, Braverman out

Sunak, with 101 votes, maintained his lead over Trade Secretary Penny Mordaunt, who got 83 votes. In the first round on Wednesday, he had got 88 votes, with Mordaunt in second place with 67 votes…reports Asian Lite News

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak still remained on top in the race to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the second round of voting among Conservative Party MPs on Thursday, but Indian-origin Attorney General Suella Braverman was knocked out.

Sunak, with 101 votes, maintained his lead over Trade Secretary Penny Mordaunt, who got 83 votes. In the first round on Wednesday, he had got 88 votes, with Mordaunt in second place with 67 votes.

In Thursday’s vote, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss still remained third with 64 votes, Equalities and Levelling Up Secretary Kemi Badenoch got 49 votes, and backbench MP Tom Tugendhat got 32 votes.

In an era of social media and hashtags, three-word political messaging is the order of the day. Brevity not gravity is the mode of communication.

In Britain, Boris Johnson, now ousted as Prime Minister, achieved runaway success with a simple slogan of ‘GET BREXIT DONE’.

This helped him sweep the 2019 general elections. He judged the public frustration about the delay in implementing the 2016 referendum verdict of British voters to leave the European Union correctly. And he kept his promise simple.

The candidates vying to succeed him have replicated his concept. Most of them have a three-word campaign message.

All the six who remained in the field prior to Thursday’s second round of balloting have crisp and concise outreaches.

Rishi Sunak, who won the highest number of votes in Wednesday’s first round of balloting, signalled ‘readyforrishi’.

Penny Mordaunt, who came second, is all acronyms — ‘PM4PM’. Liz Truss, who came third, has ‘LIZ FOR LEADER’ as her pitch, while ‘Kemi for Prime Minister’ is Kemi Badenoch’s appeal.

Tom Tugendhat has coined ‘TOM A CLEAN START’, while Suella Braverman says ‘Suella4Leader’.

Clearly, none of conjuring possesses substance. But the marketing ploy is meant to be a magnet to generate interest and thereby draw people towards the details of what a contender stands for.

Tory MPs are aiming to whittle down the field to two by the end of next week, when it will be thrown over to a postal ballot of Tory members to choose the winner, who will become prime minister.

The result will be announced on 5 September, when Boris Johnson will leave office.

Sunak has now topped the first two ballots of MPs, with the contest increasingly looking like a scrap to see who will join him in the final run-off.

His decision to quit as chancellor last week was one of the first in a wave of ministerial resignations that forced Johnson to stand down as Tory leader.

Allies of Johnson have accused Sunak of orchestrating the prime minister’s downfall and have been fiercely critical of tax hikes he introduced as chancellor.

A member of Sunak’s team said the former chancellor would “keep going with solid messaging on the economic agenda”, claiming other candidates had backed away from their pledges.

Following Thursday’s vote, Welsh Secretary Robert Buckland became the latest senior Tory MP to back Sunak, telling Talk TV he was the best person to deal with the economic challenges facing the country.

The poker faces of MPs from various camps were tested as the result was read out.

Sunak’s supporters were careful not to smile too broadly but looked satisfied. “We’re happy with that,” one of the ex-chancellor’s campaign team said.

Truss’s camp weren’t giving much away, looking ahead to the next “critical” round when they’ll hope to hoover up votes from Ms Braverman’s supporters now she’s out.

With that the remaining candidates will be off to prepare for the first TV debate, hit the phones and hone their tactics before another round of votes next week.

The leadership contest became increasingly fractious on Thursday, as allies of the candidates launched personal attacks on their rivals.

Mordaunt batted away criticism from former Brexit negotiator David Frost, who questioned her competence to be prime minister.

He said Mordaunt – a supporter of Brexit – “wouldn’t always deliver tough messages to the European Union” when he worked with her during negotiations last year.

Allies of Mordaunt said she had “nothing but respect” for Lord Frost and would “always fight for Brexit”.

ALSO READ-Sunak would run economy like Margaret Tatcher

Categories
-Top News UK News

Eight in race for No. 10

The number of contenders will be whittled down to two through more rounds of secret ballot, before British parliamentarians break up for the summer recess on July 21…reports Asian Lite News

Eight candidates have been nominated to enter the race to be the leader of the Conservative Party and replace outgoing Boris Johnson as the Prime Minister, the party’s backbench 1922 Committee said.

The eight contenders who successfully enlisted the required backing of at least 20 Conservative lawmakers are: Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak; Foreign Secretary Liz Truss; International Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt; backbench lawmaker Tom Tugendhat; Attorney General Suella Braverman; newly appointed Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi; former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch; and former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

The first round of voting among Tory lawmakers will be held on Wednesday and only those contenders who receive at least 30 votes can enter the second ballot, which is to be held on Thursday, according to the rules set by the 1922 Committee, which runs the leadership contest.

The number of contenders will be whittled down to two through more rounds of secret ballot, before British parliamentarians break up for the summer recess on July 21.

The final two contenders will then go through a postal ballot of all the Conservative members, numbering around 200,000, over the summer and the winner will be announced on September 5, becoming the new Tory leader and the UK’s next Prime Minister.

The Tory leadership race was triggered after Johnson was forced to bow to the inevitable on Thursday by an avalanche of resignations of cabinet ministers and other junior government officials in protest against his scandal-plagued leadership. Johnson continues to serve as caretaker Prime Minister until a new Tory leader succeeds him.

Johnson, who won a landslide victory in the general elections in 2019, lost support after he was caught in a string of scandals, including the Partygate scandal and the Chris Pincher scandal related to allegations of sexual misconduct by the former Conservative Party deputy chief whip.

Won’t demonise Boris, says Sunak

Meanwhile, Sunak marked the official launch of his Conservative Party leadership bid with a speech in which he pledged a “positive campaign”, which will not participate in demonising outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The 42-year-old UK-born Indian-origin politician, who is married to Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy’s daughter Akshata Murty, admitted he had disagreements with his former boss but also praised him as someone who has a good heart.

“Boris Johnson is one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever met. And, whatever some commentators may say, he has a good heart, Sunak said in his campaign launch speech in London. Did I disagree with him? Frequently. Is he flawed? Yes and so are the rest of us. Was it no longer working? Yes, and that’s why I resigned. But let me be clear, I will have no part in a rewriting of history that seeks to demonise Boris, exaggerate his faults or deny his efforts,” he said.

In an indirect reference to some reports over the weekend of damaging briefings and an alleged dirty dossier doing the rounds of the Tory groups, Sunak said: I am running a positive campaign focused on what my leadership can offer our party and our country.

“I will not engage in the negativity that some of you may have seen and read in the media. If others wish to do that, then let them. That’s not who we are, we can be better.”

On the issue that is seen as central to the leadership race, Sunak reiterated that as a former finance minister he is determined to steer the economy in the right direction but would not be making fairy tale promises on lowering taxes right away.

Boris Johnson hosts the Prime Ministers Business Council alongside the Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer and leading business figures in 10 Downing Street. Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street

“We need a return to traditional Conservative economic values and that means honesty and responsibility, not fairy tales. It is not credible to promise lots more spending and lower taxes, he said, as a clear counter-attack to some of his rivals who have promised tax cuts. So, that is my plan: tackle inflation, grow the economy and cut taxes. It is a long-term approach that will deliver long-term gains for families and businesses across the United Kingdom. I am prepared to give everything I have in service to our nation, to restore trust, rebuild our economy, and reunite the country,” Sunak said.

Unlike the more personal touch of a social media video which announced his intention to contest for the post of Tory leader following Johnson’s resignation last week, the campaign speech was more focussed on policy. Sunak laid out his long-term strategy as the future prime minister, underpinned by values of hard work, patriotism, fairness, a love of family and pragmatism.

ALSO READ-Dead Man Walking at No10