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PRIME MINISTER LIZ TRUSS How Liz Truss Became U.K. Prime Minister ... Britain’s hawkish foreign secretary won a leadership contest to succeed Boris Johnson. Here’s a guide to the process. Original article: Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | ||
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How Liz Truss Became U.K. Prime Minister
Britain’s hawkish foreign secretary won a leadership contest to succeed Boris Johnson. Here’s a guide to the process. Outside 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s official residence in London. Outside 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s official residence in London.Credit...Neil Hall/EPA, via Shutterstock By Peter Robins and Stephen Castle Sept. 6, 2022 LONDON — Three years ago, Boris Johnson led Britain’s Conservative Party to its biggest election victory in decades. Six years ago, Liz Truss was an important Conservative voice in the unsuccessful campaign for Britain to remain part of the European Union. But on Sept. 6, Mr. Johnson stepped down, forced out by his own party. And Ms. Truss replaced him, after winning over the party’s right as a Brexit-championing foreign secretary. Here’s a guide to what changed, and to the sometimes arcane system by which Britain chooses a new prime minister. ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story Replacing a Prime Minister In Britain’s parliamentary system, the leader of the majority party is in charge. Boris Johnson’s party forced him to step down. His lawmakers set the terms of the contest to replace him. Rishi Sunak was lawmakers’ top pick. But he struggled with party members. Liz Truss won over the party’s right, despite a centrist past. She has up to two years, with a tricky road ahead. In Britain’s parliamentary system, the leader of the majority party is in charge. It is hard to get rid of a British prime minister, but far from impossible. The job goes to the leader of the political party with a parliamentary majority. The party can oust its leader and choose another one, changing prime ministers without a general election. Three of Britain’s last four prime ministers, including Mr. Johnson, came into office between elections. The new prime minister may then choose to face the voters — in 2019, Mr. Johnson did so within months — but there’s no obligation to call a new general election until five years after the last one. Image Boris Johnson was forced out by members of his own party. Boris Johnson was forced out by members of his own party.Credit...Matt Dunham/Associated Press Boris Johnson’s party forced him to step down. Mr. Johnson’s position started to weaken late last year, with a series of scandals involving parties during Britain’s coronavirus lockdown that eventually brought him a fine and a stinging official report. In June, he survived a no-confidence vote among his party’s lawmakers. The next month, however, brought a new scandal, with the departure of Chris Pincher, a deputy chief whip, who was responsible for keeping Conservative lawmakers in line. Mr. Johnson had placed him in the job despite accusations of inappropriate behavior. Ministers and other officials denied on Mr. Johnson’s behalf that he had been aware of those accusations, only for successive accounts to rapidly unravel. On the evening of July 5, the chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, resigned, alongside another top minister, Sajid Javid, the health secretary. A flood of further resignations followed, with more than 50 members of Parliament quitting cabinet roles or other official positions by July 7, including some appointed to replace those who had already resigned. Later that day, Mr. Johnson announced that he would resign, acknowledging in a speech that it was clearly “the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party” that he step aside. Image Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss were the two Conservative candidates for prime minister. Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss were the two Conservative candidates for prime minister.Credit...Jonathan Hordle/ITV His lawmakers set the terms of the contest to replace him. When Mr. Johnson resigned as leader of his party on July 7, he said he would remain as prime minister until the Conservatives had chosen a new leader. His two most recent predecessors, David Cameron and Theresa May, both took that approach when they resigned. But the timetable for the leadership contest was not in Mr. Johnson’s hands: It was set by backbench Conservative lawmakers through a body called the 1922 Committee. The broad outlines of the two-stage process remain constant. First, Conservative lawmakers hold a series of ballots among themselves to whittle the number of contenders down to two. Then there’s a ballot on the final choice among the party’s entire dues-paying membership. These are members of the public who pay a standard annual subscription of 25 pounds, about $30, and there are about 160,000 of them. Eleven lawmakers sought to run this time, with the final two — Mr. Sunak and Ms. Truss — emerging on July 20 after five rounds of voting. Party members questioned Mr. Sunak and Ms. Truss at a series of meetings around Britain over the summer. Voting, by mail and online, opened in early August and closed on Sept. 2. With the result announced on Sept. 5, Mr. Johnson and Ms. Truss traveled on Tuesday to meet the queen at Balmoral Castle in Scotland for a formal handover of the role. Image Mr. Sunak would have been Britain’s first prime minister of color. Mr. Sunak would have been Britain’s first prime minister of color.Credit...John Sibley/Reuters Rishi Sunak was lawmakers’ top pick. But he struggled with party members. Through all five rounds of voting by lawmakers, one candidate remained in the lead: Mr. Sunak, the top finance official for most of Mr. Johnson’s time in Downing Street. Mr. Sunak, 42, would have been Britain’s first prime minister of color — though there was a premier with Jewish heritage, Benjamin Disraeli, as long ago as 1868. For some time, Mr. Sunak was considered a favorite to take the job. Party members, however, rejected him decisively. Mr. Sunak took up his post as chancellor in 2020, as the coronavirus was reaching Britain, and he gained popularity through his calm handling of its economic impact as it became a pandemic, including through a furlough program that paid companies to sustain nearly 12 million jobs during lockdown. But this year, he had a fall from grace of his own. Like Mr. Johnson, he was fined for attending a party that broke coronavirus regulations, and he has also faced damaging reports around the tax status of his wealthy wife. Opponents have drawn attention to Mr. Sunak’s wealth, with one cabinet minister pointing to reports that one of his suits cost £3,500, adding that Ms. Truss wore earrings that cost £4.50. In the final vote, he suffered from his association with Covid-era spending, tax increases and Britain’s cost-of-living crisis, as well as his part in pushing out Mr. Johnson, an ousting that many party members now say they regret. Image Ms. Truss was a student activist for a centrist political party. Ms. Truss was a student activist for a centrist political party.Credit...Andy Rain/EPA, via Shutterstock Liz Truss won over the party’s right, despite a centrist past. Ms. Truss remained in the government as foreign secretary during the wave of resignations that felled Mr. Johnson. She took second place only in the final round of the lawmakers’ ballot, consolidating support from several defeated candidates on the party’s right. Once a student activist for a smaller, centrist party, the Liberal Democrats, Ms. Truss, 47, campaigned for Britain to remain in the European Union during the 2016 Brexit referendum — a key dividing line for the many Conservative members who, like Mr. Sunak, voted to leave. But she has remade herself as a champion of Brexit causes, pursuing aggressive negotiations with the European Union over trade in Northern Ireland. In this contest, she has also promised to pursue rapid tax cuts, to be financed by repaying pandemic debt over a longer period. That was a point of distinction with Mr. Sunak, who described the idea as “fantasy economics.” She also expressed skepticism about “handouts” to help voters with a coming sharp rise in energy bills — a stance she has since reversed, promising in a BBC interview on Sept. 4 that she would set out a plan on the issue in her first week as prime minister — and pushed back against the idea of a windfall tax on energy companies. Those positions appeared to resonate with Conservative members: Polling indicated a clear lead for her throughout the final phase of the contest, though her reputation among voters as a whole looked less secure. She has up to two years, with a tricky road ahead. Though new prime ministers in Britain generally enjoy a lift in opinion polling, things look sticky for Ms. Truss’s government. Inflation is surging, interest rates have risen and household bills are soaring, with another hefty step up in domestic energy prices scheduled for October. But she also has one of the most significant advantages enjoyed by governing parties in British politics: the ability to set the date of a general election. The last available moment would be January 2025. Going much sooner is an option, to capitalize on early popularity and pre-empt further bad news, but it would be a dangerous one. Mr. Johnson’s snap election produced a landslide victory, but Mrs. May, his predecessor, called an early election with a double-digit poll lead, only to lose both her parliamentary majority and her authority. And that was in more favorable circumstances. As she took power, the Conservatives were consistently behind the opposition Labour Party in most opinion polling, and several polls suggested that voters would rate Keir Starmer, Labour’s leader, as a better potential prime minister. Labour, however, has lost previous elections after holding similar or larger midterm leads. Ms. Truss has not seemed inclined to take the risk of an early vote. She ended her victory speech to Conservative activists by promising to win again “in 2024.” If she can navigate the choppy economic waters ahead, it could still be a fair few years before Britain has yet another prime minister. Stephen Castle is London correspondent, writing widely about Britain, including the country’s politics and relationship with Europe. @_StephenCastle • Facebook Upheaval in British Politics
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