Ousted from power with a bang, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss are making a noticeable return to the top of the British political scene, increasing the pressure on current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is already weakened by deals in his government and an ongoing social crisis is . . .
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Forced out of Downing Street – the first after months of scandals and the second after just 49 days and policies that caused panic in financial markets – both emerged from their media silence this week.
While Boris Johnson has not completely disappeared from the scene and occasionally shown his support for Ukraine and Brexit, Liz Truss has so far kept a low profile.
On Sunday, the former prime minister made her first public statement since leaving in October in the form of a long column in the conservative Sunday Telegraph newspaper, in which she persists and endorses her program and criticizes Rishi Sunak’s fiscal policies.
She blames “the orthodox economic ecosystem” and “lack of political support” for causing her downfall, and urges the Conservative Party to return to its roots through tax cuts.
The Prime Minister and his Treasury Secretary Jeremy Hunt have so far ruled out this option due to the state of public finances.
“We want (taxes) to come down,” but “first we have to get the fundamentals right,” that is, bringing down inflation, Business and Energy Secretary Grant Shapps defended to the BBC on Sunday, believing in Liz’s approach Truss “wasn’t” the right thing.
Following her podium finish, Liz Truss, who defeated Rishi Sunak in the Downing Street race last summer, will give a television interview on Monday.
“Disastrous” policy
British political columnists see this return as a desire to influence debate among Conservatives just weeks ahead of a new budget and when Rishi Sunak is at half-staff in the polls after 100 days in power.
Although 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 faces massive social movements with repeated strikes in health care, transport or public services to demand better wages while inflation is still above 10%.
Rishi Sunak is also being attacked by the opposition, but also in the Conservative ranks among Johnson and Truss confidants after he had to sack Conservative Party President Nadhim Zahawi over tax disputes and for continuing to put faith in Justice Secretary Dominic Raab being the harassment accused of his staff.
At that moment, Boris Johnson also decided to step up his activism in favor of Ukraine by demanding that the UK supply more weapons, especially fighter jets.
In Davos in early January, and in Kyiv two weeks ago, when he appeared with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Johnson remains one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters in its war against Moscow.
Visiting Washington this week, where he was meeting with Republican officials, he urged the British government on Fox News to “give Ukrainians what they need as soon as possible.”
“It wouldn’t be a bad thing if we donated more tanks ourselves,” he said in an interview on TalkTV on Friday with MP Nadine Dorries, one of his most trusted lieutenants.
Downing Street had to remind that Boris Johnson was “not acting on behalf of the British Government” and recalled the practical difficulties of supplying fighter jets.
Both Truss and Johnson still enjoy broad support among Conservatives, the pro-Johnson criticizes Rishi Sunak for causing their champion’s downfall by resigning from his government, while some MPs defend the tax cuts introduced by Truss.
For the daily newspaper The Times, less than two years before the next general election, the “two somewhat injured predecessors (of Sunak) are in the starting blocks”.