September 5th, 2022.
Well, the Conservative party election is over, and to no one’s surprise, the winner is Liz Truss. What is surprising is that the margin of success was lower than forecast, with Truss receiving 57% and Sunak 43%.
She now has the job of selecting a cabinet and appointing junior ministers, with many of the top posts going to men and women of ethnic minority background, in sharp contrast to the ‘egalitarian’ Labour party’s shadow cabinet.
It is suggested that the biggest axe will fall on Johnson’s ranks of special advisors, civil servants and sundry hangers-on.
Liz Truss and her husband were at Westminster Hall for the announcement of the leadership election result.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, Boris Johnson will make his way up to Balmoral to tender his resignation to the Queen followed in due course by Liz Truss who will then formally be appointed Prime Minister by Her Majesty the Queen.
She then makes her way back to London to work on the economic issues, the cabinet reshuffle and prepare for her first Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
The reshuffle started today when Priti Patel, the Home Secretary resigned. This was a case of her pre-empting her likely dismissal as she is acknowledged as being the worst Home Secretary for years, and believe me, that takes some doing as she faced stiff competition for the title. Her likely replacement is thought to be the Attorney General, Suella Braverman.
This is a post with major issues to be addressed. The immigration policy is a shambles, with people flooding in across the channel, the Metropolitan Police is in disarray and being placed in special measures and her department’s inability to deport illegal immigrants.
The Conservatives remain in trouble in the polls, with polling averages extrapolated in the three weeks running up to 5 September placing Labour on 40.4%, the Conservatives on 31.7%, and the Liberal Democrats on 11.9%.
This is projected to leave Labour 16 seats short of a majority and would entail a coalition with the LibDems or the Scottish Nationalists, both of which would be dangerous.
The next few days will determine the course of the rest of the Conservative administration and that rests on whether Liz Truss can grasp and resolve the economic and social difficulties that the country is facing.
