Opinion: Truss has her task cut out

By Ajay Gokul Britain will now have a new Prime Minister. Six gruelling weeks of the Conservative party’s leadership race ended Monday afternoon with Liz Truss declared the winner. She beats her opponent, Rishi Sunak, by securing 57.4% of the vote, compared to his 42.6%. Let’s face it, that’s not quite the landslide she would […]

By Ajay Gokul

Britain will now have a new Prime Minister. Six gruelling weeks of the Conservative party’s leadership race ended Monday afternoon with Liz Truss declared the winner. She beats her opponent, Rishi Sunak, by securing 57.4% of the vote, compared to his 42.6%.

---

Let’s face it, that’s not quite the landslide she would have hoped for. After all, Boris Johnson won his 2018 leadership race over Jeremy Hunt with more than twice as many votes and even David Cameron won over David Davies in 2005 with a margin of 2:1. So the kind of decisive victory her predecessors enjoyed has certainly eluded her. Not the best of starts for Truss, but that’s not it.

The coveted invitation from Buckingham Palace marks the pinnacle of any British politician’s career. Sadly, there will be no such theatrics this time. No cameras will be panning out of the Palace gates as the outgoing and incoming Prime Minister’s convoy whizz through in short intervals of one another. Instead of that usual 10-minute trip from Downing Street, Boris and Truss will take a 1,000-mile round trip to Scotland. Owing to advanced age and mobility issues, for the first time in her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II will break with tradition to receive the outgoing Prime Minister and appoint the next from her holiday retreat, Balmoral Castle, instead of Buckingham Palace.

Castle is a Castle

Much has been written by past Prime Ministers about the humbling experience of Day 1 as one walks through the grand corridors of Buckingham Palace – a rite of passage for any incoming PM and the nervous jitters elude none, including the most well-assured of all-weather politicians.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair recalls in his autobiography, ‘A Journey’, his anxious wait in an antechamber before tripping on a piece of carpet as he was ushered in to meet the Queen. This first meeting, described in court papers as ‘kissing of the hands’ ceremony, would see the Queen formally appoint a Prime Minister to form a new government in the Sovereign’s name. Whilst Truss would certainly give the grandeur backdrop of Buckingham Palace a miss, the countryside Balmoral Castle, is well, still a castle and not a humble abode. So it shouldn’t be troubling.

Troubling Mess

What should be more troubling is the mess she is about to inherit. A falling GDP, rising inflation, soaring cost of living crisis, unabating industrial unrest, skyrocketing energy bills and a deeply divided Tory party after this bruising campaign. With dire warnings from charities about destitution for many Britons and gloomy forecasts of a worsening economy, getting through the winter will be the biggest challenge. Long-term and short-term policy measures must be devised to tackle these issues. This should inform her priorities as far as the domestic front is concerned.

She also has the unenviable task of winning the support of the people and Parliament. People, because she has not been elected Prime Minister through a general election. Instead, she is elected as the leader of the party holding the majority in Parliament. Boris still had two more years to go but had to step down after the unending list of scandals that plagued his premiership. So she was elected by less than 1% of the British electorate because only the rank and file of the Conservative Party voted to elect their leader.

As the leader of the party also happens to be the leader of the largest party, she becomes Prime Minister and will complete the remainder of Boris’ term. She could, of course, call a general election, but she has ruled that out. After 12 years of a Conservative government, reaching out to a weary wider audience beyond the Tory party members is going to be an uphill task.

Turning to her parliamentary colleagues would provide her little respite. Rishi, not her, was the most favoured candidate for the leadership for her fellow Tory MPs. One of the UK’s leading think tanks, the Institute of Government, has said that Truss has a weaker starting point than any of her predecessors. While the party still holds a comfortable margin of majority, it is deeply divided on ways to tackle the economic crisis.

Team Truss has always supported slashing taxes while Team Rishi campaigned against it, vowing for a more balanced ledger. How they will both work together is a matter of concern. She now has the task of forming her new cabinet and faces Parliament, which reconvenes after the summer recess. Her political astuteness is sure to be judged in the coming days.

International Affairs

If these domestic matters seem too burdensome, she might take some solace in dealing with matters of international affairs, her supposed area of expertise. She has been the Foreign Secretary for almost a year now. With a war on European soil for the first time in decades, her mettle is to be tested. She had already faltered on the question of providing weapons to Taiwan in a televised Sky News debate by Kay Burley, failing to provide a clear policy stance.

As to her relationship with India, if anything is to be judged by her past actions, no one can forget the epic faceoff she had with India’s External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, this March. This was against the backdrop of Russian energy imports. But she seems to have not taken any ill will and has expressed her desire for a trade deal before Diwali, which seems unlikely. She has previously pushed for stronger trade deals with India in the defence sector. However, she does not support specific policy changes in the UK visa system that may benefit Indian students.

Judging from her victory speech, international relations hardly featured and seemed to take a back seat at the moment. Domestic issues loom large over Britain’s third female Prime Minister. Whilst pomp and ceremony might mark her first day, she is bound to find her early zeal tempered by the realities of office.