United Kingdom: the return of Truss and Johnson, a new thorn in Sunak’s side

Ousted with a bang from power, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss are making a noticeable return to the forefront of the British political scene, increasing the pressure on the current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, already weakened by business in his government and a social crisis which lasts. .

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Forced out of Downing Street — the first expelled after months of scandals, and the second after just 49 days and a policy that sparked panic in financial markets — they both emerged from their media silence this week.

If Boris Johnson had not completely disappeared from the landscape, occasionally displaying his support for Ukraine and Brexit, Liz Truss had so far kept a low profile.

On Sunday, the former Prime Minister made her first public expression since her departure in October, in the form of a long column in the conservative Sunday Telegraph newspaper in which she persists and signs on her program and criticizes the fiscal policy of Rishi Sunak. .

She accuses “the orthodox economic ecosystem” and “a lack of political support” of having caused her downfall and urges the Conservative Party to return to its roots by lowering taxes.

The Prime Minister and his Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt have so far ruled out this option due to the state of public finances.

“We want to see (the taxes) drop”, but “first we must build the right foundations”, that is to say reduce inflation, defended Sunday on the BBC the Minister of Business and Energy Grant Shapps, believing that Liz Truss’ approach “wasn’t” the right one.

After her podium, Liz Truss, who beat Rishi Sunak last summer in the race for Downing Street, will give a television interview on Monday.

“Disastrous” policy

British political columnists see this return as a desire to weigh in on the debate among the Conservatives, a few weeks before a new budget and when Rishi Sunak is at half mast in the polls after 100 days in power.

Even if she does not criticize him by name, “it is obvious that she thinks his policies are disastrous”, writes the Sunday Telegraph in its editorial.

The government is facing massive social movements, with repeated strikes in health, transport or public services, to demand better wages while inflation is still above 10%.

Rishi Sunak is also attacked by the opposition, but also in the conservative ranks among those close to Johnson and Truss, after having had to sack the president of the conservative party Nadhim Zahawi for tax disputes and because he maintains his confidence in the Minister of Justice Dominic Raab, accused of harassment of his staff.

It was also this moment that Boris Johnson chose to increase his activism in favor of Ukraine, demanding that the United Kingdom deliver more weapons, in particular fighter planes.

In Davos in early January, in kyiv two weeks ago appearing with President Volodimir Zelensky, Johnson remains one of Ukraine’s fiercest supporters in its war against Moscow.

Visiting Washington this week where he met with Republican officials, he urged the British government on Fox News to “give Ukrainians what they need as quickly as possible”.

“It wouldn’t be a bad thing if we donated more tanks ourselves,” he insisted on Friday in an interview on TalkTV with MP Nadine Dorries, one of his most loyal lieutenants.

Downing Street was forced to recall that Boris Johnson “was not acting on behalf of the British government”, recalling the practical difficulties of delivering combat aircraft.

Both Truss and Johnson still enjoy wide support among conservatives, pro-Johnson criticizing Rishi Sunak for having caused their champion’s downfall by resigning from his government, while some parliamentarians defend the tax cuts brought by Truss.

For the daily The Times, less than two years from the next general election, the “two somewhat injured predecessors (of Sunak) are waiting in the wings”.

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