Liz Truss
and Rishi Sunak are the two finalists in the race of who occupies 10 Downing
Street. The Conservate vote for who becomes Tory leader and hence the prime
minister has been sealed and results are expected in a few hours. Boris
Johnson, who is being ousted as prime minister over partygate and a range of
other issues, is scheduled to resign on Tuesday. Ahead of results, here is a
cheat-sheet on how UK’s two prime ministerial-hopefuls differ on key policy
questions.

Cost-of-living
crisis

The
cost-of-living crisis is perhaps Britain’s worst problem right now. Whoever
becomes the next prime minister will have to deal with the problem head on and
come up with some sort of a solution. Liz Truss, the former defence secretary
who seems to be leading in the polls according to some UK-based media outlets, has
said that she plans to create an emergency budget to set out measures to ensure
that the economy is growing.

Also Read | UK PM race: Win or lose, what’s next for Liz Truss?

Truss, who
enjoys the support of the Tory grassroots, has also said that she will tackle
the cost-of-living crisis by putting money into people’s pockets. Among several
other ways, this will be done by reversing the rise in National Insurance.
Truss has also ruled out the possibility of energy rationing this winter.

Also Read | Tory front-runner Truss vows fast action on cost of living

Rishi Sunak,
on the other hand, wants to tackle the crisis by focussing on employment and
ensuring people have necessary skills in order to find jobs. Sunak has said
that he cannot rule out energy rationing this winter but is looking for
long-term solutions such as helping people improve insulation in their homes.
Sunak has also promised to scrap the 5% VAT on household energy.

Taxes

Liz Truss
has pledged that she will not introduce any new taxes and scrap a pending rise
in corporation tax, which is planned to rise from 18% to 25% in 2023. She has
also decided to do away with the “green levy,” the part of energy bill that
goes into funding green projects.

Also Read | UK PM race: Win or lose, what’s next for Rishi Sunak?

Rishi Sunak
has promised to cut down on taxes when UK has inflation under control. He further
said that he will cut the basic rate of income tax by 1p in 2024 and by 3p by
the end of the next Parliament. Sunak has decided to keep the planned rise in
corporation tax as is.

Climate

Liz Truss
has said that she will revoke the ban on fracking and do away with the green
levy while honouring the goal of reaching net-zero by 2050. She has also
planned on a new survey of wildlife to understand which species are endangered.

Rishi Sunak
has decided to introduce a legal target to make United Kingdom energy
sufficient by 2045. He further said that he will reverse the ban on building
new onshore windfarms.

Health

Liz Truss
has pledged to divert more healthcare funds towards social care. She says GP
services need to be more accessible in order to cut down the load on hospitals.
Truss seeks to encourage doctors to come out of retirement in order to help the
National Healthcare Service (NHS).

Rishi Sunak
has decided to accelerate NHS targets in a bid to cut waiting lists,
elimination one-year waiting times by September 2024. He has also expressed his
wish to introduce a 10-pound fine on those who miss a GP or hospital
appointment.

Brexit

Liz Truss
had voted “remain” on the Brexit referendum in 2016, but she now says that she
can be trusted with Britain’s exit from the European Union. She said UK courts
should be final arbiters in deciding on questions related to trade between
Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

Rishi Sunak,
who voted leave in the referendum, has promised to fix the NI protocol – part of
UK’s post-Brexit deal with EU. Sunak is also committed to reforming all EU laws
and bureaucracy still in place by the time of the next election.