If you’re feeling exhausted by the constant turmoil in politics, you’re not alone. After Liz Truss’ resignation on 20 Oct., after just 44 days in the job, it was announced on 24 Oct. that former Chancellor Rishi Sunak is the new leader of the Conservative Party – and the third PM we’ve had in 2022.
At the end of last week, the 1922 Committee agreed candidates needed to garner a minimum of 100 votes from Tory MPs to be accepted as potential PM, before votes would be taken to the wider party members. News over the weekend threatened that former PM Boris Johnson, who resigned in July following his changing claims on Chris Pincher, the politician accused of sexual misconduct, and the Sue Gray report which confirmed he broke his own lockdown rules, would be running again for PM. Johnson cut short his holiday in the Caribbean to drum up support for his return, but he pulled out a couple of days later.
After Johnson backing out, Penny Mourdant and Sunak were thought to be the two front runners, but Mourdant failed to reach the threshold leaving Sunak, who received public backing from over 190 MPs, to be awarded leader of the Tories and the first person of colour to be British PM.
Truss beat Sunak to be PM in Sept., but her mini-budget tanked the economy leading to her sacking Chancellor Kwasi Karteng, as she failed to tackle the cost of living crisis. Taylor Swift fan Truss’ impressively short tenure, which suspiciously came to an end at the same time as Swift released her “Midnights” album, caused chaos in government leaving Sunak’s first and most necessary task to stabilise the economy.
Many are calling for a general election, while others just want some time for the dust to settle. Whatever your political stance, it’s clear that changes must happen.
