Tag: Truss

Categories
-Top News UK News

Truss holds commanding lead over Sunak in PM race  

Liz Truss celebrates the suspension of US tariffs. Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss in her office inside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office talks with the Acting United States Trade Representative Maria Pagan as they celebrates the suspension of US tariffs on Scottish Whisky. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

Opinium’s detailed questioning also uncovers a striking lack of enthusiasm for either candidate when members are asked whether they would prefer one of them to Johnson to run the party and country…reports Asian Lite News

The prime ministerial race frontrunner, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, continues to hold on to a commanding 22-point lead over former Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the Conservative Party leadership contest, according to a new survey of Tory members on Sunday.

In an Opinium poll for The Observer’ newspaper of 570 Conservative members with a vote in the election, Truss is on 61 per cent and the British Indian former minister is on 39 per cent. With under three weeks to go before the September 2 deadline for postal and online votes to be cast by the membership to elect a successor to outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Sunak seems to have closed the gap only slightly in recent days.

From the moment we knew the final two candidates, it has been clear that Truss has had all the momentum, and our latest poll sets out just how large her lead among the party members has become, Chris Curtis of Opinium told the newspaper.

With many members having already returned their ballot papers, it is now very unlikely Truss won’t become Prime Minister in September. It’s clear that Sunak’s biggest problem is trust. While some members respect his economic arguments, this hasn’t been enough to overcome the view among members that he isn’t honest or trustworthy enough for the top job, particularly after he called for Johnson to go, he said.

Opinium’s detailed questioning also uncovers a striking lack of enthusiasm for either candidate when members are asked whether they would prefer one of them to Johnson to run the party and country. When offered the choice of Johnson still being in No. 10 Downing Street, or Truss taking over, around 63 per cent of Tory members polled said they would prefer Johnson to be still in charge against 22 per cent who wanted Truss. On the other side, 68 per cent said they would prefer to still have Johnson than see him replaced by Sunak, who was preferred by just 19 per cent.

The poll also found that almost three in 10 of the Tory electorate (29 per cent) had already voted. Some 47 per cent said they would definitely be voting for the candidate they had opted for. Just 19 per cent said they had yet to make up their mind.

Opinium said that while these findings meant it may still be possible for Sunak to pull off a stunning comeback to enter 10 Downing Street, but to do so he would have to win over almost all the undecideds and convert a sizeable chunk of those not fully behind Truss.

The Foreign Secretary’s support is particularly strong among older Conservative members, while Sunak’s is far higher among younger ones. For Sunak the most cited reason was that he would be better at managing the economy (22 per cent), while 10 per cent said they regarded him as the most competent or intelligent.

A main reason mentioned by people who backed Truss was dislike of Sunak (14 per cent). The same proportion (14 per cent) said the Cabinet minister was more honest and trustworthy, while 10 per cent chose the fact that she had remained loyal to Johnson and not called on him to resign. Around 2 per cent of Tory members cited race or ethnicity as a reason for supporting Truss and not Sunak.

Meanwhile, the bookie’s odds also continue to be firmly in favour of a Truss win at 88 per cent as opposed to 12 per cent for Sunak. Both hopefuls continue to pledge new commitments if elected, with Truss saying she would take on the role of “Minister for the Union” and Sunak promising to introducing legislation to make the UK “energy independent” by 2045 at the latest, as he vowed to ensure there is no repeat of the looming winter crisis.

After voting closes on the evening of September 2, the winner between the two finalists will be declared on September 5 and he or she will take charge as Tory leader and British Prime Minister immediately.

ALSO READ-Sunak, Truss clash over cost-of-living crisis

Categories
-Top News UK News

‘I would rather lose than give false promises’

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak on his way to brief members of the cabinet at the weekly Cabinet meeting inside No10 Downing Street, on the day the Chancellor delivers his summer statement to the House during the coronavirus. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

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.

Liz Truss celebrates the suspension of US tariffs. Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss in her office inside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office talks with the Acting United States Trade Representative Maria Pagan as they celebrates the suspension of US tariffs on Scottish Whisky. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

“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.

ALSO READ-UK summons Chinese envoy over Taiwan drills

Categories
-Top News UK News

Sunak, Truss clash over cost-of-living crisis

The issue of inflation and how best to curb it has emerged as the main battle line in the race to 10 Downing Street, with both candidates offering different approaches…reports Asian Lite News

The race to elect a new Conservative Party leader, who will take charge as British Prime Minister early next month, heated up on Monday as the two finalists – Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss – clashed over their proposals to tackle the soaring cost-of-living crisis across the country.

The issue of inflation and how best to curb it has emerged as the main battle line in the race to 10 Downing Street, with both candidates offering different approaches. While Truss has pledged immediate tax cuts if elected, Sunak has promised more targeted support for the most vulnerable households and tax cuts further down the line.

A fresh row brewed out over the weekend after Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told ‘The Financial Times’ that her plan to lower taxes rather than offer handouts was more Conservative. This prompted an immediate rebuke from former Chancellor Rishi Sunak that it is “simply wrong to rule out further direct support” for struggling families this winter.

“Families are facing a long, hard winter with rising bills. Yet Liz’s plan to deal with that is to give a big bung to large businesses and the well-off, leaving those who most need help out in the cold,” Sunak writes in ‘The Sun’.

“Worse still, she has said she will not provide direct support payments to those who are feeling the pinch most. We need clear-eyed realism, not starry-eyed boosterism. That means bolder action to protect people from the worst of the winter. I have the right plan and experience to help people through,” he said.

Supporters of Truss hit back to say her remarks over the weekend had been “misinterpreted”.

“What she has, I think, rightly challenged is the wisdom of taking large sums of money out of people’s pockets in tax and then giving some of that back in ever more complicated ways,” said Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt, a supporter of the Foreign Secretary.

“She’s willing to do more to help people but her focus is around doing it in a way that puts more money in people’s pockets, creating a high-growth economy with higher wages, more people in work,” added Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis, another Truss supporter.

While Truss has pledged a package of tax cuts worth GBP 30 billion, which Sunak has argued would increase inflation and only save lower earners GBP 59 a year. However, both candidates are feeling the heat on the issue as the UK economy is expected to plunge into a year-long recession as inflation goes beyond 13 per cent later this year, according to the Bank of England forecasts from last week.

Former Labour British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, himself an ex-chancellor, warned that the cost-of-living crisis is too serious for things to wait another few weeks until a new Prime Minister is in place.

He is calling for the Cabinet Office Briefing Room A (COBRA) emergency committee to convene in “permanent session” right away and is also calling for Parliament, which is on summer recess, to be recalled as a matter of urgency unless outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson and both Tory leadership candidates can agree on an emergency budget in the days to come.

“Even if Boris Johnson has now gone on holiday, his deputies should be negotiating hard to buy new oil and gas supplies from other countries and they should be urgently creating the extra storage capacity that we currently lack,” Brown writes in ‘The Daily Mirror’.

Supporters of the former finance minister in the race are urging Conservative Party members, who will be voting in postal and online ballots during the course of this month, to judge Sunak by his record of supporting families through the COVID pandemic crisis as Chancellor.

Meanwhile, the bookmaker odds continue to hold strongly in favour of Truss, with the bookie odds aggregator Oddschecker showing the Foreign Secretary way ahead at 87 per cent and Sunak at 13 per cent odds of winning.

ALSO READ-Sunak’s stark inflation warning   

Categories
-Top News London News UK News

Truss ready to speed up tax cut plan

Advisors to Truss believed the cut could be introduced within days of an emergency budget that her government would deliver in September, if she wins the ruling Conservative Party’s leadership race that is due to end on Sept. 5, it said…reports Asian Lite News

Liz Truss, the front-runner to become Britain’s next prime minister, plans to rush through tax cuts earlier than planned in an attempt to boost the country’s flagging economy, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Truss was considering accelerating by six months her plan to reverse this year’s increase in social security contributions which had been pencilled in for April 2023, the newspaper said.

Advisors to Truss believed the cut could be introduced within days of an emergency budget that her government would deliver in September, if she wins the ruling Conservative Party’s leadership race that is due to end on Sept. 5, it said.

Truss’s rival, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, says cutting taxes now would add more fuel to Britain’s soaring inflation rate which is set to surpass 13% in October, according to the Bank of England’s latest forecasts.

The BoE has also said Britain is due to enter a 15-month recession starting later this year, something Truss says adds urgency to her plan to cut taxes.

Truss, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, said she wanted to “immediately tackle the cost of living crisis by cutting taxes, reversing the rise on National Insurance and suspending the green levy on energy bills.”

Sunak proposes a different approach by giving support directly to lower-income households that are most exposed to the surge in power bills which will rise sharply again in October.

On Saturday, he reiterated that he wanted to “go further” than the support he provided as finance minister before he resigned in protest at the leadership of Prime Minister Boris Johnson in July.

“It’s simply wrong to rule out further direct support at this time as Liz Truss has done and what’s more her tax proposals are not going to help very significantly, people like pensioners or those on low incomes,” he said.

A recent poll by YouGov showed Truss held a 24-point lead over Sunak among Conservative Party members who will choose the party’s next leader and Britain’s next prime minister.

In her Sunday Telegraph article, Truss kept up her criticisms of the BoE, saying it had exacerbated the jump in inflation and she would “work night and day” to fix the problem.

“That is why I want to look around the world at what the best performing central banks are doing to control inflation and how we can ensure our Bank is delivering what we need it to deliver,” she said.

BoE Governor Andrew Bailey has denied the BoE is to blame for the inflation surge, saying it began to raise interest rates earlier than other central banks and most of the recent acceleration of prices stems from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Sunak under fire

Rishi Sunak, trailing in the two-horse race to replace British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, faced criticism on Friday for saying he had previously instigated policy changes to divert funding away from deprived urban areas.

The ruling Conservative Party is choosing a new leader after Johnson was forced to quit when dozens of ministers resigned in protest at a series of scandals and missteps. Party members are voting by post to select either Sunak or foreign minister Liz Truss.

Polling shows Sunak, who was finance minister between February 2020 and July 2022, is trailing Truss as the two candidates tour the country in a bid to secure votes.

His comments came in a video published on Friday by the New Statesman magazine, which it said was filmed on July 29 at a meeting of Conservative Party members in Tunbridge Wells, a relatively affluent area in south east England.

Sunak is seen telling an audience: “I managed to start changing the funding formulas to make sure that areas like this are getting the funding that they deserve, because we inherited a bunch of formulas from the Labour Party that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas … that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that.”

The New Statesman did not specify who filmed the short video and Reuters could not independently verify the date or the location when the video was made. The context of his comments was not shown.

Asked about the comments, a source in Sunak’s campaign referred to reforms to ensure rural areas received funding alongside urban centres, pointing to his efforts, announced in March 2020, to redraw rules the finance ministry used to allocate investment.

Levelling up isn’t just about city centres, it’s also about towns and rural areas all over the country that need help too,” the source said, of Johnson’s policy to reduce regional inequalities.

“Travelling around the country, he’s seen non-metropolitan areas that need better bus services, faster broadband, or high quality schools. That’s what he’ll deliver as Prime Minister.”

Truss did not immediately comment on the video.

However, the opposition Labour Party seized on the video as evidence that the Conservatives, who have been in power since 2010, are not committed to spreading wealth across the country.

“Public money should always be distributed fairly and spent in areas where it is most needed,” Labour’s spokeswoman on Levelling up, Lisa Nandy, said in a letter to the government, describing the comments as “deeply concerning” and calling for an investigation.

ALSO READ-Sunak scores surprise debate win over Truss

Categories
-Top News UK News

Sunak scores surprise debate win over Truss

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

Categories
-Top News UK News

Sajid supports Truss

The YouGov survey showed 60% of the party members polled between July 29 and August 2 said they intend to vote for the Foreign Secretary, with just 26% backing Sunak…reports Asian Lite News

Liz Truss’s bid to become the next prime minister was boosted on Tuesday evening after she won the backing of former rival Sajid Javid and polls suggested she had a massive lead over Rishi Sunak.

The Foreign Secretary won a 34-percentage point lead over Sunak in a YouGov poll of party members, before a survey for the ConservativeHome website put her 32 points ahead.

Javid, whose resignation as health secretary minutes triggered a cascade of resignations forcing Boris Johnson to quit as Tory leader, threw his support behind Truss.

He claimed that “tax cuts now are essential,” while Sunak has said tackling inflation is needed before tax cuts.

A former chancellor, Javid also warned in an article for the Times that the nation risks “sleepwalking into a big-state, high-tax, low-growth, social democratic model which risks us becoming a middle-income economy by the 2030s”.

“If we can renew our government with a bold agenda, the Conservatives can still beat Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP at the next election – and the evidence suggests Liz is the best-placed candidate to do so,” he added.

His backing of Truss came shortly before the latest hustings of Tory members at an event in Cardiff on Wednesday evening.

The YouGov survey showed 60% of the party members polled between July 29 and August 2 said they intend to vote for the Foreign Secretary, with just 26% backing Sunak.

The poll of 1,043 Conservative Party members indicates just 11% do not know who they will vote for, while 2% said they will not take part in the contest.

A further indication of Truss’s commanding lead came with a survey of 1,003 members by the ConservativeHome website, which had 58% backing her to Sunak’s 26%.

The Truss campaign said in a statement that the former Health Secretary’s endorsement was a sign she was uniting the party.

“His support signals that Liz is bringing the party together and they’re uniting behind her bold plan to cut taxes, grow the economy and deliver for the country,” said a spokesperson.

However, her campaign has suffered some setbacks in recent days after she abandoned a pledge to cut the public sector wage bill by paying workers in cheaper areas of the country less than in more expensive parts – claiming it had been “misrepresented”.

Critics of the plan had claimed it would go against the Government’s levelling up agenda by cutting wages in more deprived areas of the country, although Truss insisted it was never meant to impact people’s current pay rates.

Under questioning during a leadership hustings of Tory members in Cardiff, Truss insisted the plan was never intended to apply to doctors, nurses and teachers.

Asked who had got the policy wrong, she said: “The media.”

Sunak welcomed her U-turn, saying it would have meant “almost half a million workers in Wales getting a pay cut”.

The Foreign Secretary renewed her attacks on Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during the hustings after labelling her demands for an independence referendum as attention seeking.

She went on to criticise Wales’s Mark Drakeford as a “low-energy version of Jeremy Corbyn”, and called Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer a “plastic patriot”.

The first postal votes in the contest were due to be submitted this week, but the party delayed sending ballots out following advice from cyber security experts.

The party has made changes to its process on the advice of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, following warnings that hackers could change members’ votes.

The ballots had been due to be sent out from Monday but could now arrive as late as Thursday August 11.

Clash over tax plans

Sunak launched a fresh attack on Truss’s plans for tax cuts ahead of their next debate on Thursday.

Sunak said his rival in the Conservative leadership race would further drive up interest rates, raising mortgage payments, with her plans, reports dpa news agency.

His warning came as the Bank of England was forecast to raise interest rates to the highest level in nearly three decades on Thursday, from 1.25 per cent to 1.75 per cent.

An announcement by the central is scheduled for midday, with experts warning that inflation could peak at 15 per cent, adding to the already painful cost-of-living crisis with spiralling prices.

Meanwhile, the pair are also due to face off in a head-to-head debate on Sky News on Thursday evening.

Sunak has faced attacks from Truss for overseeing rising taxes while in No 11 during the pandemic, as she pledges a more radical plan to slash them.

He has insisted he does want to see taxes come down, but argues it is necessary to bring inflation under control before making major changes.

The former Chancellor stressed there are “crucial differences” between their plans “because timing is everything”.

“If we rush through premature tax cuts before we have gripped inflation all we are doing is giving with one hand and then taking away with the other,” he said in a statement.

“That would stoke inflation and drive up interest rates, adding to people’s mortgage payments. And it would mean every pound people get back in their pockets is nothing more than a down payment on rising prices. A policy prospectus devoid of hard choices might create a warm feeling in the short term, but it will be cold comfort when it lets Labour into Number 10 and consigns the Conservative Party to the wilderness of opposition.”

Truss countered by saying “we cannot tax our way to growth” and insisting her plans would not drive up prices further. My economic plan will get our economy moving by reforming the supply side, getting EU regulation off our statute books, and cutting taxes,” she said.

“Delivering bold reforms to the supply side is the way we’ll tackle inflation in the long run and deliver sustainable growth. Modest tax cuts, including scrapping a potentially ruinous corporation tax rise that hasn’t even come into force, are not inflationary.”

Thursday’s debate follows a previous head-to-head last week, held on TalkTV on July 26, which was halted after presenter Kate McCann fainted off-camera while Truss was speaking.

McCann later said she was feeling “a little embarrassed, a little bit bruised, but glad to be back and totally fine”.

ALSO READ-Sajid seeks support for world-first Covid-19 antiviral study

Categories
-Top News UK News

Euro 2022 winners urge next PM to support girls’ football

United Kingdom. No10 Downing Street are flying the flag of St George in support of the England Women's Football Team after reaching the final of the Euro 2022 tournament. 10 Downing Street. Picture by Kyle Heller / No 10 Downing Street

The players asked the two candidates to pledge to ensure that all girls have access to at least two hours of PE sessions each week, where football is offered…reports Asian Lite News

England’s Euro 2022 winning footballers on Wednesday urged the two candidates vying to become the UK’s next prime minister to ensure that all girls have access to the sport at school.

All 23 members of the squad, which beat Germany 2-1 in Sunday’s final at a sold-out Wembley Stadium, signed an open letter to Conservative Party leadership candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, calling on their help to “create real change in this country.”

“Currently only 63 percent of girls can play football in PE (physical education) lessons. The reality is we are inspiring young girls to play football, only for many to end up going to school and not being able to play,” they wrote.

“This is something that we all experienced growing up.”

The players asked the two candidates to pledge to ensure that all girls have access to at least two hours of PE sessions each week, where football is offered.

“We have made incredible strides in the women’s game, but this generation of schoolgirls deserves more,” they wrote.

“They deserve to play football at lunchtime, they deserve to play football in PE lessons and they deserve to believe they can one day play for England.

“We want to create real change in this country and we are asking you, if you were to become Prime Minister on 5 September, to help us achieve that change.”

Both candidates responded to the Lionesses’ call, without making any firm commitment on schoolgirls being able to play football.

Truss’s campaign responded by saying the candidate “is committed to investigating what prevents schools from delivering the recommended minimum of two hours PE per week.”

Sunak’s spokesman said he “would love to see all schools provide two hours of PE a week.”

ALSO READ-‘Russia a danger to Europe’

Categories
-Top News UK News

Truss gets 34-point lead in latest opinion poll

More than 80 per cent of those who say they will support his rival insist their minds are already made up and they plan to cast their votes for her as soon as possible…reports Asian Lite News

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss opened up an astonishing 34-point lead in the latest opinion poll of Conservative members who make up the electorate, suggesting her contender for party leadership and the PM’s post, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak has a mountain to climb, media reports said.

Truss and Sunak will face the Tory faithful Wednesday night amid strong signs that the party has already made up its mind who it wants to become its next leader and prime minister, Daily Mail reported.

The survey by YouGov for the Times, UK also pours cold water on the former Chancellor’s hopes of changing their minds, as he prepares for the third hustings in Cardiff.

More than 80 per cent of those who say they will support his rival insist their minds are already made up and they plan to cast their votes for her as soon as possible.

Just 17 per cent say they might still change their mind while 29 per cent of Sunak’s supporters say they might still vote differently, Daily Mail reported.

In another blow, the vote has been hit by a delay after spy chiefs warned that ballots “could be vulnerable to hackers”.

Originally, Conservative party members were going to be given a postal ballot which had a code with it, individual to each voter.

Afterwards, they could then submit their choice by post or online for the first time- and were able to change their decision later in the contest.

But that is no longer possible because of fears that the vote could be manipulated.

Truss, who has for weeks been the favourite to succeed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, is supported by 60 per cent of Conservative members, Daily Mail reported.

Just 26 per cent said they were backing former chancellor Sunak, who has been launching a policy blitz in a bid to catch up with his rival.

ALSO READ-Truss wins cabinet backing

Categories
-Top News UK News

Boris loyalist slammed for meme  

Nadine Dorries at Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games (Picture Credits: https://twitter.com/NadineDorries)

Truss has been leading in the opinion polls and bookmaker’s odds as the favoured candidate to succeed Boris Johnson…reports Asian Lite News

One of outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s key loyalists and supporter of Foreign Secretary Liz Truss as his successor, who has been very vocal in attacks against Rishi Sunak, was on Sunday facing criticism for retweeting a “dangerous and distasteful” image of the former Chancellor.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries re-posted a tweet on her social media account showing an image of Johnson dressed as Roman leader Julius Caesar and Sunak stabbing him in the back, a reference to his killer Brutus.

Business Minister Greg Hands, who is backing the British Indian ex-minister in the race, told ‘Sky News’ the post was “appalling”.

“I do find it distasteful and I do find it, less than a year after the stabbing of our colleague, in very, very poor taste, even verging on dangerous,” he said.

Referring to the stabbing to death of Tory MP Sir David Amess by a constituent last year, he added: “It is not even a year since the stabbing of Sir David… so I think this is very, very bad taste, dangerous even,” But an unnamed ally of Dorries pointed out that it was “obviously a satirical image of Brutus and Caesar”, photoshopped to provide political commentary.

“Some people of course will want to be wilfully offended,” the ally said.

Dorries has previously attacked Sunak’s expensive dress sense as a sign of not being in touch with the British electorate and accused him of leading a “ruthless coup” against his former boss.

“I am bitterly disappointed that Boris Johnson was removed via a ruthless coup, as he was, led largely by Rishi Sunak,” she has said.

It comes as a report in the ‘Observer’ newspaper claims Sunak’s team is being urged to overhaul his “general election-style” campaign in favour of a grassroots effort, speaking directly to the estimated 180,000 Tory members in a last-ditch attempt to beat Liz Truss to the Conservative leadership.

Truss has been leading in the opinion polls and bookmaker’s odds as the favoured candidate to succeed Boris Johnson.

“The vote is very soft, you don’t have to do much to move it. We’re making this far too complicated. There’s brilliant people in charge, but I’m just worried we’re fighting the wrong campaign,” one Sunak supporting Tory MP told the newspaper.

Another MP said: “The stuff they have their guys producing is social media stuff for a general election. This is about party members. It should just be about getting Rishi and key supporters to as many members as possible. They are trying to get MPs out for them, but it’s mainly producing social media graphics.”

A third ally said: “I do think it’s looking quite difficult for him but I can’t give up hope yet. There are a lot of MPs talking to their associations. There’s still time. It would be preposterous to just go through the motions for the next four weeks.” The postal ballots for the election will start landing at Tory members’ addresses from next Thursday, with the deadline for receiving completed ballots set as the evening of September 2. The result will be declared on September 5.

ALSO READ-Truss, Sunak vow crackdown on migration

Categories
-Top News UK News

Zahawi backs Truss  

Sunak meanwhile has won the support of Damian Green, the veteran Tory MP who served as de facto deputy prime minister under Theresa May, who leads the One Nation group of Conservatives…reports Asian Lite News

Nadhim Zahawi has thrown his weight behind Liz Truss in the Conservative leadership race, as ballots begin to drop on party members’ doorsteps on Monday.

The chancellor praised Truss’s “booster” economic approach while suggesting Rishi Sunak was a “doomster”.

Sunak and Truss take their campaigns to Exeter this evening, where the two rivals will take part in the second hustings of the contest.

Truss is now seen as the clear frontrunner in the race to replace Boris Johnson, and has also picked up the backing of defence secretary Ben Wallace and former leadership contender Tom Tugendhat.

Sunak meanwhile has won the support of Damian Green, the veteran Tory MP who served as de facto deputy prime minister under Theresa May, who leads the One Nation group of Conservatives.

In declaring his support for Truss, Zahawi wrote in The Daily Telegraph: “Liz understands that the status quo isn’t an option in times of crisis. We need a ‘booster’ attitude to the economy, not a ‘doomster’ one, in order to address cost-of-living woes and the challenges on the world stage. Liz will overturn the stale economic orthodoxy and run our economy in a Conservative way.”

When Sunak quit as chancellor Zahawi was handed the job by Johnson. A day after his appointment Zahawi told the prime minister he should resign.

Asked on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme about Zahawi giving his support to Truss, Sunak laughed and said: “As you can tell I find it it rather amusing.”

And he rejected the suggestion Truss had more support from Conservatives in Westminster.

“I did end the parliamentary phase with comfortably the largest number of MPs backing me,” he said.

In total, ten cabinet ministers have decided to back Truss for the leadership while eight are supporting Sunak.

Nadine Dorries, Suella Braverman, Simon Clarke, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Kwasi Kwarteng, James Cleverly, Therese Coffey, Wallace and Zahawi are supporting the foreign secretary.

Dominic Raab, Stephen Barclay, Robert Buckland, Grant Shapps, George Eustice, Mark Spencer, Shailesh Vara and Michael Ellis are backing Sunak.

In a last-ditch effort to win over the party faithful before they start voting, Sunak attempted to shake off his image as the tax-hiking former chancellor by promising the “biggest income tax cut since Margaret Thatcher’s government”.

He vowed to slash the basic rate from 20% to 16% within seven years if he becomes prime minister, in a move immediately branded as a “flip-flop” by allies of Truss after weeks of labelling her plans for sweeping tax cuts as “comforting fairy tales”.

Conservative members have the chance to vote as early as this week and have until the beginning of September to cast their ballot, with the winner announced on September 5.

ALSO READ-Advantage Truss