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The Scottish National Party, which heads Scotland’s semi-autonomous government, wants to hold a second independence referendum next year, which could rip apart the world’s fifth-biggest economy…reports Asian Lite News
The two candidates battling to be Britain’s next prime minister vied to present themselves as defenders of Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom on Tuesday, promising more scrutiny of Scotland’s government to undermine a new push for independence.

The Scottish National Party (SNP), which heads Scotland’s semi-autonomous government, wants to hold a second independence referendum next year, which could rip apart the world’s fifth-biggest economy.

The bonds holding together the four countries that make up the United Kingdom — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — have been severely strained over the last six years by Brexit and the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Liz Truss, the foreign minister and frontrunner in the leadership race, and Rishi Sunak, a former finance minister, set out their policies for Scotland as they appeared at the only Conservative Party hustings in the country on Tuesday.

The two candidates competing to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson want more focus on the Scottish government’s record on health and education. Scotland has the highest drug deaths in Europe and two thirds of the population is either obese or overweight, while a think tank report last year said its education system is the weakest in the United Kingdom.

At the hustings in Scotland, both Sunak and Truss ruled out granting another independence referendum if they become prime minister, saying the issue was settled when the last one was held eight years ago.

“To me, we’re not just neighbours, we’re family. And I will never ever let our family be split up,” Truss told Conservative party members.

However, about a quarter of Scots are likely to support independence regardless of which Conservative candidate wins, according to an opinion poll published by Survation and Diffley Partnerships.

The SNP said Scotland loses no matter who wins the contest, and attacked the British government’s failure to deal with the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades.

The real value of average British workers’ pay fell at the fastest rate since at least 2001, the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday, as inflation outstripped wage increases.

Scotland, which has a population of around 5.5 million, rejected independence in 2014. But its government says Britain’s departure from the European Union, which was opposed by most Scots, means the question must be put to a second vote.

The two candidates vying to become UK's next prime minister have dismissed the idea of a new referendum on Scottish independence. Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak made their statements during their latest hustings event in Perth.@SaroyaHem talks to @AlexonTV for details pic.twitter.com/fqoGivYTmR

— WION (@WIONews) August 17, 2022

Earlier, Truss promised to give parliamentary privilege to members of the Scottish parliament to allow more scrutiny of the government, and said she would push a trade deal with India to end longstanding 150% tariffs on Scotch whisky, the country’s biggest single product export.

Sunak has said if he becomes prime minister, he would order senior Scottish government officials to attend annual British parliament committee hearings and ensure data on performance of Scottish public services was consistent with numbers published for England and Wales.

On Tuesday, he ruled out freezing a cap on energy prices despite calls from the opposition Labour party for such a move to help struggling households with soaring bills.

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Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, is unimpressed with the economic plans of both Tory leadership rivals, as well as those of the Labour opposition…reports Asian Lite News

Britain’s leading politicians have been accused of coming up with “pure fantasy” solutions to the country’s problems, amid the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades.

At the same time, the government has been denounced as “missing in action”, distracted by the Conservative Party’s leadership race to determine who will replace Boris Johnson.

The outgoing prime minister’s office confirmed on Monday that he had begun a week’s holiday, his second break in a fortnight. Downing Street said last week that it would be up to “the future prime minister” to take new measures.

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, the two remaining contenders to succeed Johnson, have been concentrating on winning over party members who are voting this month for the new leader.

It comes at a time when the economy is facing a prolonged recession and UK inflation is the highest in the G7, hitting a 40-year high this summer. In July it rose to 9.4%, and the Bank of England expects it to hit double figures come October when household energy bills are due to rise again.

Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, is unimpressed with the economic plans of both Tory leadership rivals, as well as those of the Labour opposition.

“We (economists) tend to look at difficult things like costs and benefits, trade-offs, pros and cons. Our political leaders seem less and less willing to acknowledge that such trade-offs even exist. Apparently, we can have our cake and eat it,” he wrote in an article published on Monday.

Truss, the foreign secretary, has said she prefers tax cuts to “handouts”, and has not committed to increasing direct payments to consumers.

Sunak, the former chancellor (finance minister), has backed “urgent help” to enable people to pay bills, without giving specifics. “Failure to do this would push millions, including many pensioners, into a state of destitution,” he said on Saturday.

Earlier this year he approved a £400 payment to offset fuel bills that all households will get this autumn. He opposes immediate tax cuts but has vowed to slash the basic rate of income tax by 20% by 2029.

“We’ve had a shower of cakeism recently. Both the 2019 Labour and Conservative manifestos were stuffed full of it,” said Paul Johnson of the IFS. “Both Conservative leadership contenders are guilty of it. They seem to think they can promise tax cuts without any hint that this might matter for the quality of public services or the level of borrowing and debt.”

Paul Johnson also criticised Britain’s opposition Labour leader, after he called on Monday for the energy price cap to be frozen.

“Keir Starmer has now suggested that we “suspend” the energy price cap. In other words, find £30 billion-plus to subsidise energy bills,” he wrote.

“The fact remains that if we want to buy gas on the world market then we will have to pay a lot more for it than we have been used to. We are competing for that gas in a world in which demand is rising faster than supply. That’s why the price is rising.”

However, Johnson acknowledged that “Labour has gone much further than Conservative leadership contenders” in giving details of how to pay for its plans. Starmer said his party, if in power, would extend a windfall tax on oil and gas companies in the North Sea to raise £8.1 billion (€9.6 billion).

Analysts Cornwall Insight have predicted that a typical annual household energy bill could reach the equivalent of €5,000 in January. The energy consultancy Auxilione has suggested that the figure could approach €6,000 in the first half of 2023.

Early last week, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, called for a meeting of the UK’s four nations’ leaders to develop an urgent plan. “The current Westminster paralysis can’t go on,” she tweeted.

Martin Lewis, a consumer champion who runs the popular Money Saving Expert website, warned that “we are facing a potential national financial cataclysm”, with millions unable to heat their homes this winter.

Meanwhile the former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was in power during the 2008 global financial crisis, called for Boris Johnson, Truss and Sunak to get together and draw up an emergency budget in preparation for a “financial time bomb” in October.

“It’s not just that they’re asleep at the wheel — there’s nobody at the wheel at the moment,” he told broadcaster ITV.

Last Thursday Boris Johnson and senior ministers held inconclusive talks with energy companies amid mounting pressure to help consumers.

Afterwards, the outgoing leader insisted that “significant fiscal decisions” must be left to his successor. Later, he sought to ease concern.

“What we’re doing in addition is trying to make sure that by October, by January, there is further support and what the government will be doing, whoever is the prime minister, is making sure there is extra cash to help people,” he said.

The winner of the Conservative leadership race — who will also become the next prime minister — is due to be announced on September 5.

ALSO READ-Truss holds commanding lead over Sunak in PM race

In an interview with the BBC, the former Chancellor said he was committed to helping the most vulnerable families with the cost-of-living crisis and felt a “moral responsibility to go further” and provide “extra help” over the winter…reports Asian Lite News

Prime ministerial candidate Rishi Sunak has insisted that he would rather lose the Conservative Party leadership race to replace Boris Johnson than win on a false promise on how he plans to tackle the economic crisis.

In an interview with the BBC, the former Chancellor said he was committed to helping the most vulnerable families with the cost-of-living crisis and felt a “moral responsibility to go further” and provide “extra help” over the winter.

The issue has become the key dividing line between him and his rival, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who has pledged tax cuts which the former finance minister insists will benefit wealthier households rather than those who need it most.

“I would rather lose than win on a false promise,” Sunak, 42, said.

“What I’m determined to do is help people across this country through what will be a very difficult winter. My first preference is always not to take money off people in the first place,” he said.

As the candidates continue to be grilled by Conservative Party members who will be voting in the election in hustings up and down the UK, the issue of soaring inflation and prices has dominated the agenda.

“People can judge me on my record,” reiterated Sunak in his BBC interview on Wednesday night, referring to his work as Chancellor through the Covid lockdown.

“People can judge me on their record – when bills were going up by around 1,200 pounds earlier this year, I made sure the most vulnerable received around 1,200 pounds,” he pointed out.

Sunak also promised to “go further” than what he has already announced if elected Prime Minister.

“I know millions of people are worried about inflation, particularly the cost of their energy bills. What I’ve said if I’m Prime Minister I will go further in supporting those families who most need support because the situation is worse than when I announced those measures earlier this year,” he said.

When Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak get the keys to Number 10 in just under month, they will have to answer the question: what can the government do to help people struggling with rising bills as winter approaches?

At the moment, the candidates are trying to appeal to 160,000 or so Conservative members, who are choosing their next leader and our next prime minister.

But as the wider electorate watches on, what have the candidates actually promised on the cost of living? Will they be forced to set out more detail about what they are prepared to do? And what does Rishi Sunak’s record tell us about his plans?

She wants to immediately reverse the rise in National Insurance contributions and suspend green levies on energy bills.

Her allies say this will give people more money in their pockets.

But the foreign secretary faced pressure over the weekend when she said she wanted to help people by reducing the tax burden – and “not giving handouts”.

Not quite. Truss’s team say she is not ruling anything in or out. She will, they say, look at what is needed and what is possible in her emergency budget.

Team Sunak don’t think so.

He hasn’t pulled any punches in an article for The Sun newspaper, saying that Ms Truss’s plans (including a plan to cancel an increase in corporation tax) are “a big bung to large businesses and the well-off, leaving those who most need help out in the cold”. He writes that bolder action is needed.

So what is he planning in his first weeks as prime minister? He has said he will scrap VAT on energy bills. But beyond that, he hasn’t offered much in the way of specifics.

Sunak’s supporters say it will depend on what happens with energy bills in the coming days. They have said he can be trusted based on his record as chancellor.

But remember – Sunak often faced a lot of pressure to act before he took decisions to help those on the lowest incomes.

He was criticised after the Spring Statement earlier this year for not doing enough to help people with increasing prices. Many Tory MPs urged him to act – and within weeks he announced further new cost of living support.

Sunak initially resisted Labour’s calls for a Windfall Tax to help pay for help – before eventually agreeing to one.

He has also used furlough as an example of decisive action. But remember he was criticised for being too slow to extend it towards the end of 2020.

In fact, Sunak resisted extending the scheme at first.

And then there’s this campaign. Mr Sunak has been criticised for saying he’ll scrap VAT on energy bills – given that he didn’t do it when he was in the Treasury.

There are four weeks to go in this leadership contest. There will be pressure on both candidates to give more details on what they will do to help with rising bills – and to spell out how they’ll pay for it.

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Burley also challenged Truss on her comments soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that she would back Brits going to fight on the Ukrainian side…reports Asian Lite News

Rishi Sunak on Thursday appeared to score a surprise win with a studio audience at a key debate with frontrunner Liz Truss in the race to become Britain’s next prime minister.

While opinion polls back Truss to win the vote among Conservative party members, those sitting in the audience at the Sky News debate overwhelmingly supported Sunak in a show of hands — after an electronic voting system broke down.

Truss had faced acerbic questioning from presenter Kay Burley, including a run-through of her policy U-turns and the question: “Will the real Liz Truss please stand up?”

Truss had earlier been forced into another U-turn after a damaging statement by her campaign team on Monday that the government could save £8.8 billion ($10.75 billion) a year if it paid lower salaries to public sector workers who lived outside London.

“You wanted to cut civil servants’ pay in the regions and then you said you didn’t,” Burley said, listing her policy U-turns.

Truss insisted the proposal was misrepresented by media.

“Should good leaders own their mistakes, or should they blame others?” Burley asked her.

“I’m not blaming anybody else. I’m not. I’m not. I’m saying the policy has been misrepresented by various people,” Truss said, appearing flustered.

Burley also challenged Truss on her comments soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that she would back Brits going to fight on the Ukrainian side.

British fighters have since been captured and convicted as mercenaries and face a potential death penalty in the Donetsk separatist region.

Truss stressed the travel advice was always that British people should not go to Ukraine.

Sunak also faced tough questioning and a quip about his taste in designer loafers.

“People feel that you can’t walk a mile in their shoes because you’re walking in your Prada shoes,” Burley told Sunak, whose father-in-law is a billionaire.

She mocked Sunak’s insistence on his humble roots as he mentioned that his father was a doctor in the national health service (NHS).

“I grew up in an NHS household, you may have heard on this campaign,” he said.

“He never mentions it!” Burley interjected.

The final vote showed a larger number of hands for Sunak than for Truss, as Burley admitted: “I wasn’t expecting that.”

The result of the vote between Truss and Sunak, to decide who will replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is due on September 5.

ALSO READ-Sunak, Truss spar over tax plans