(London) Rishi Sunak was received on Tuesday by King Charles III to succeed Liz Truss and become British Prime Minister, the third in two months in a country plagued by unprecedented instability and a deep social crisis.
Posted at 6:07 am
Updated at 6:44 a.m.
Arriving at 10:07 GMT (6:07 a.m. EDT) at Buckingham Palace, the 42-year-old ex-banker and finance minister held his first audience with the sovereign, according to footage of the meeting released by Charles’ services. III.
PHOTO ALBERTO PEZZALI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Liz Truss
Liz Truss leaves Downing Street
Liz Truss, the most ephemeral prime minister that the United Kingdom has known, left Downing Street on Tuesday after 49 days in power, before the appointment of her successor Rishi Sunak, third head of government in two months.
After having crossed for the last time as Prime Minister the famous black lacquered door stamped with No. 10, Liz Truss sent her wishes for “all possible success” to her successor, “for the good of our country”.
Quoting the philosopher Seneca – “it is not because things are difficult that we dare not, it is because we dare not that they are difficult” – curator Liz Truss, 47, s launched into a plea for audacity in power.
Reflecting on her whirlwind tenure, she cited Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and Charles III’s accession to the throne, as well as supporting households in the face of rising energy bills.
She then drove to hand in her resignation to King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.
The 73-year-old sovereign will entrust the task of forming a new government to Rishi Sunak, who unless surprised, should notably keep Jeremy Hunt as finance minister.
Former banker and Minister of Finance, the conservative Rishi Sunak becomes, at 42, the youngest head of government in the contemporary history of the United Kingdom, after a meteoric rise in politics. He is also the first British leader of Indian origin and the first from a former British colony.
Rishi Sunak will finally travel to Downing Street, where he will deliver a speech around 11:35 a.m. (6:35 a.m. EDT).
It is the first time that Charles III appoints a head of government. Liz Truss had been received by Elizabeth II on September 6 during an audience at the Scottish castle of Balmoral. The 96-year-old sovereign died two days later.
After his victory in his formation on Monday, Rishi Sunak promised “stability and unity”. “Bringing the party and the country together will be my top priority,” he said in a brief address.
Rishi Sunak takes the reins of a country facing a serious economic and social crisis. Inflation exceeds 10%, the highest in the G7. Energy prices are soaring, as are food prices. The risk of recession hovers.
He will also have to calm the markets, shaken by the budget announcements of the Truss government at the end of September, since canceled for the most part in disaster.
Rishi Sunak comes to power in a period of unprecedented instability. He is the fifth British prime minister since 2016, when the country chose in a referendum to leave the European Union, and the third in two months.
Brexiter
He takes the head of an extremely divided conservative party, after twelve years in power. As the Labor opposition peaks in the polls two years from the general election, Rishi Sunak has warned MPs in his camp that they must “unite or die”.
Rishi Sunak ruled out early elections, demanded by Labour. But according to an Ipsos poll published on Monday, 62% of voters want such an election before the end of 2022.
According to a YouGov poll, only 38% of Britons are satisfied that Rishi Sunak will become their prime minister.
This early Brexiter, who passes for a pragmatic worker, will have to form a government quickly, to both give guarantees to the markets and satisfy the clans of his majority, at the risk of suffering the same fate as Liz Truss. He will also have to explain his intentions: he did not speak during the Tories’ flash campaign which started on Thursday.
He won without a program or a vote from the members, after the renunciation of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the failure of his opponent Penny Mordaunt to qualify.
During the previous campaign, last summer, during which he was beaten by Liz Truss, this former Chancellor of the Exchequer (2020-2022) had insisted on the need to fight against inflation, qualifying the promises of cuts taxes of his “fairy tale” adversary.
On immigration, he said he supported the ultra-controversial project, and for the time being blocked, consisting in sending migrants who arrived illegally in the United Kingdom to Rwanda.