Replacing Johnson: A choice of two futures for the U.K.
And then there were two, said Andrew Grice in The Independent. The once crowded field to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister was winnowed this week to former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, giving the Conservative Party a “choice of two very different futures” for Britain after Brexit. Sunak finished first in a vote among Conservative members of Parliament this week, while Truss jumped ahead of Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt to reach the runoff. Truss, who polls show is ahead of Sunak among the party members who will pick the winner in a mail vote, wants post-Brexit Britain to become “Singapore-onThames,” transforming itself into a “low-tax, low-regulations country which diverges from EU rules.” Sunak, meanwhile, insists that Britain focus on “balancing its books and recognizing the growing demands on public services,” even if that means raising taxes to fund social programs. Sunak would keep defense spending “on its present path,” while Truss wants to boost it to 3 percent of GDP to toughen up against Russia and China. The stage is set for a true “battle of ideas,” under the “immediate pressures” of an economic crisis and a war in Europe.
Truss has radically broken from “modern Tory party orthodoxy” as she seeks to distance herself from Sunak, said Paul Waugh in iNews. Her plan to fund new tax cuts with “war bonds,” which would let Britain pay its Covid-era debt over a longer period of time, would “hand on debts to future generations” in a manner many Tories dating back to Margaret Thatcher find “immoral.” Still, she has gained momentum among the party base, despite a clunky campaign launch and a reputation for “verbal gaffes” and “haplessness” that “could prove corrosive.”
Sunak, meanwhile, has struggled to elucidate “what he really believes,” said Fraser Nelson in The Telegraph. As a young MP, Sunak burst onto the scene by insisting the government had grown so big that its sheer size “would crush economic growth.” Now, as he seeks votes from moderate party members, he’s plotting to raise taxes on corporations and positioning himself against what he calls “the Tory Right”—which is surprising, “because until a few weeks ago that’s where I’d have placed him.”
This Conservative leadership contest has been the most diverse in Western history, said The Economist. While the field has been whittled down, six of the 11 original candidates “are of Black or Asian heritage.” Sunak launched his campaign by telling the story of his Indian-born mother, who came to the U.K. “with hope for a better life.” The current chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi (now out of the race), arrived in Britain at age 11 “as a refugee from Iraq.” It’s a shame, then, that there’s so little diversity of ideas, said Nesrine Malik in The Guardian. Zahawi has condemned Black Lives Matter for spreading “partisan political views,” while another former candidate, former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch—who is Black—frequently attacks “woke” social justice concerns. “Real diversity should disrupt the status quo.” This version may change Britain’s appearance, “but not its fundamental nature.’’