After almost three weeks in Downing Street, Liz Truss is more unpopular with the British than ever.
Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss on Sunday defended her controversial policy of massive tax cuts but acknowledged communication errors after her budget announcements turned into a financial fiasco amid a livelihood crisis. Less than a month after arriving at Downing Street, the new head of government, more unpopular than ever, said on the BBC set from Birmingham, where the Conservative Party’s annual congress begins, that her ‘mini budget’ had been unveiled on September 23 ” the right decision”.
“I still stand by the plan that we announced and I contend that we announced it quickly because we had to act, but I recognize that we should have prepared the ground better,” she said. Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng last week announced a “mini-budget” to deal with the cost-of-living crisis and near single-digit inflation choking Brits, but his aid-based announcements of direct cuts in energy bills and massive tax cuts for the wealthiest have triggered Lack of understanding on the financial markets, who fear a debt explosion.
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“I think it was the right decision to increase borrowing this winter,” Liz Truss reiterated after a chaotic week that saw sterling hit all-time lows and sparked interventions from both the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England. “Of course we need to bring the debt down to a certain percentage of GDP in the medium term and I have a plan for that. But what would have been a mistake would have been not to act,” she said, without giving further details on how she planned to proceed.
After almost three weeks in Downing Street, Liz Truss is more unpopular than ever with Brits – 51 percent of them believe she should resign, according to a YouGov poll – but is also not finding her way into her Conservative ranks. Worried by his budgetary policies, some Tories have no hesitation in speaking out as the party’s annual congress begins on Sunday in a somber atmosphere and sparse seats.
“At a time when people are suffering and worried about their credit and the size of their tax allowances, the tax cut for the wealthiest is the key tax measure that leads to poor values,” Tory MP Michael Gove told the BBC. “I don’t think that’s a good thing,” he added on Sunday when asked if he would vote for the budget in Parliament.
Neither Sunak nor Johnson
Liz Truss’ appearance on the BBC on Sunday was her first to a national audience since the mini-budget was announced. She had made the rounds of local BBC channels on Thursday, but her awkward silence had drawn more comment than her futile attempts to defend her policies. After those multiple disappointments, the Tories have slumped in the polls, with the Labor opposition now leading by 33 points, according to a YouGov study published on Thursday, which was unheard of since the 1990s and the era of Tony Blair, former Labor Prime Minister .
“I will do what I can to win the hearts and minds of my Conservative Party colleagues,” Liz Truss said on Sunday. But in this somber and divided atmosphere, the bulk of the Conservatives risk taking a seat in Birmingham with scant ranks. Neither Rishi Sunak – former rival of Ms Truss in the race for Downing Street – nor former Prime Minister Boris Johnson were actually meant to make the journey.
After protests throughout the weekend over the cost of living crisis, Kwasi Kwarteng, also hugely unpopular, will speak at the convention on Monday, while Liz Truss will close the rally on Wednesday. According to the British press, letters of defiance against the new leader, who, in the eyes of a party fringe, already regrets Boris Johnson, are mounting.
On the contrary, others believe that we must close ranks to avoid at all costs snap general elections that would lead to the collapse of the Conservatives. “We would cease to exist as a functioning political party” if such elections were held, MP Charles Walker warned.
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