Liz Truss outshines Rishi Sunak, poised to become next UK Prime Minister

Liz Truss is poised to become the next Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom, polls show. Rishi Sunak, who was the leading
candidate for some time, is likely to have lost out. Conservative supporters
will cast their votes till Friday. The results of the election to find a
replacement for Boris Johnson will be revealed on Monday. Johnson, 58, will
tender his resignation on Tuesday.

Tory members started voting for the next UK Prime
Minister in early August, a month after Boris Johnson announced his
resignation. Truss will take charge of 10 Downing Street at the time when the
UK is going through its worst cost-of-living crisis.

Bills are set to rise by 80% from October and rise
further from January. Surveys show millions will be able to choose between
eating and heating. Liz Truss, writing for The Sun newspaper Thursday, vowed to
“deliver immediate support to ensure people are not facing unaffordable fuel
bills,” this winter.

Pitching her Thatcherite agenda for reform, Truss
wrote, “I firmly believe, in these grave times, we need to be radical.”

Initially, it was Rishi Sunak who was riding the support
wave after the Tory base turned on its Brexit hero Boris Johnson. But Truss was
quick to turn the tide in her favour.

“Sunak has demonstrated some of the qualities you might
hope to see in a good minister. But Miss Truss has demonstrated the qualities
you need in a politician,” said John Curtice, professor of politics at the University
of Strathclyde.

When the new PM of the United Kingdom takes office,
they will walk into a strike of cleaners, security guards, reception workers
and mail room staff. Workers at the department of Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy have decided to walk out on September 5 and 6 over health,
safety and other entitlements.

The Public and Commercial
Services Union said the walk-out is a “sign of things to come.” “Our members
all across the civil service are increasingly angry and desperate as the
government does nothing to ease the cost-of-living crisis,” said Mark Serwotka,
PCS general secretary.