Skip to main content

Rishi Sunak Cheers Up UK's Tories, But Opposition Senses Weakness

By
Rishi Sunak Cheers Up UK's Tories, But Opposition Senses Weakness

Rishi Sunak said, "I told the truth for the good of the country."

London:

Britain on Wednesday saw the outlines of the next no-holds-barred general election campaign, after multimillionaire Rishi Sunak took office as the third prime minister of the year.

Sunak gave as good as he got from the opposition Labour party at his first session of "Prime Minister's Questions" -- delighting his Conservative backbenchers after the turmoil of recent weeks.

First Boris Johnson was forced out, after one scandal too many. Then the MPs voted for Sunak against Liz Truss as leader, only for the party's largely white, wealthy and southern English members to overrule them.

"The only time he ran in a competitive election, he got trounced by the former prime minister, who herself got beaten by a lettuce," Labour leader Keir Starmer mocked Sunak in a febrile House of Commons.

Truss suffered a political demise so rapid that a celebrity lettuce outlasted her in an online stream shown by the Daily Star newspaper.

At her last Prime Minister's Questions a week ago, Truss declared to Starmer that she was "a fighter, and not a quitter". Tory MPs behind her sat in glowering silence. The next day, she quit.

With Sunak now in charge after seeing off a brazen comeback bid by Johnson, the same Tory MPs cheered and thumped the Commons benches -- prompting Speaker Lindsay Hoyle to warn: "Don't damage the furniture!"

Sunak reminded Starmer that he was beaten by Truss because Tory members did not believe his warnings of the economic carnage that her tax-cutting policies would provoke.

He contrasted that with Starmer's own support for the far-left Jeremy Corbyn to become prime minister, when Corbyn led Labour to defeat at the last election in 2019.

"I told the truth for the good of the country," the new Conservative leader said.

"He (Starmer) told his party what it wanted to hear. Leadership is not selling fairy tales. It is confronting challenges," he shouted.

Challenges aplenty await Sunak as he tries to unwind the havoc wrought by Truss during her 49 days in power -- the shortest in British history.

Video nasties

But he has already achieved one signal feat in becoming Britain's first prime minister of colour -- a fact acknowledged by Starmer as "part of what makes us all so proud to be British".

Beyond those warm words, Starmer previewed the election campaign onslaught that Sunak can expect, after Labour identified the new leader's fabulous wealth as a key vulnerability at a time of financial crisis for many.

Sunak is a former Goldman Sachs banker and hedge fund investor. The father of his Indian wife Akshata Murty founded the Infosys business empire.

Together, the couple are said by the Sunday Times Rich List to be worth £730 million ($847 million) -- more than King Charles III.

Starmer brought up Murty's previous "non domicile" tax status, which dented Sunak's popularity when it was revealed earlier this year.

He also referenced a campaign video that showed Sunak boasting of diverting government funds from deprived areas to a well-heeled corner of southeast England.

A spokesman for Starmer said Labour's focus groups had also found deep disfavour among voters with another embarrassing spot, in which Sunak struggled to understand how to pay for items at a petrol station with a debit card.

The cumulative picture is of an expensively coutured prime minister so out of touch that he cannot be trusted to identify with the struggles of ordinary Britons.

Sunak's team will need to come up with a convincing rebuttal.

A national election is due by January 2025 at the latest, but could well come sooner if Labour and other opposition parties have their way.

Outside parliament, protesters gave their own verdict of Sunak, a self-confessed "Star Wars geek". At full amplification, they played "The Imperial March", Darth Vader's ominous theme.

With the Conservatives' collapsed poll ratings following Johnson and Truss, the untested new prime minister needs to show his restive party that the electoral force is strong with him.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Featured Video Of The Day

Adblock test (Why?)



from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/9H26PKt https://ift.tt/ie9pHdE
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Salaries Of 12700 Punjab Teachers Tripled After Regularisation

By
Punjab government has tripled the salaries of 12,700 teachers, who were regularised recently. Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday said the salaries of 12,700 teachers, who were regularised recently, have been increased by up to three times. In a statement here, Mr Mann said these teachers will be known as associate teachers and special inclusive teachers, adding that they will be governed by a 'Policy for Welfare of Adhoc, Contractual, Temporary Teachers (Nation Builders) and other employees in the School Education Department'. Based on their educational qualifications and primary conditions for entry into services, their emoluments have been fixed up to the completion of 58 years in service. Mr Mann said these teachers will be entitled to an increment of 5 per cent on their salaries every year. The chief minister said BA pass education providers (associate teachers) who were hitherto getting Rs 9,500 per month will now get Rs 20,500 as an emolum...
Post a Comment
Read more

Russian Mercenary Arm Wagner Groups Says Moscow Army Attacked Its Forces

By
Russian mercenary group Wagner said that Moscow attacked on its rear camps. Moscow: The chief of Russian mercenary group Wagner on Friday accused Moscow's military leadership of ordering strikes on their camps and killing a "huge" number of forces. "We were ready to make concessions to the defence ministry, surrender our weapons," Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a furious audio message released by his spokespeople. "Today, seeing that we have not been broken, they conducted missile strikes at our rear camps." (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) Adblock test (Why?) from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/J4lDwvL https://ift.tt/w7JfFhE via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

"Jaiswal Has Run Ahead Of Gill": Ex-India Star's Massive T20 WC Verdict

By
Former India opener Aakash Chopra has suggested that Yashasvi Jaiswal is slightly ahead of Shubman Gill in the pecking order as captain Rohit Sharma's partner at the top in T20Is. Since making his debut last year, Jaiswal has been in stunning form in the shortest format of the game. Gill's form, on the other hand, has dipped since the ODI World Cup last year in India. With the T20 World Cup scheduled to be held later this year, Chopra feels Jaiswal will open the innings with Rohit during the tournament. "It's clear that Yashasvi Jaiswal has run ahead of Shubman Gill. Yashasvi is ahead in the two-horse race, Gill is lagging slightly behind. Gill was played in the first match, dropped in the second, and wasn't played in the third as well," Chopra said on his YouTube channel. Jaiswal helped India beat Afghanistan in the second T20I earlier this week, scoring a quickfire fifty. Considering his recent form across formats, Chopra emphasised that Jaiswal has ...
Post a Comment
Read more