Truss poised to take helm of UK's Tories

LONDON－After a grueling nationwide tour, a dozen hustings and three televised debates, Liz Truss appears poised to take over as the UK's next prime minister heading into the close of voting by Conservative Party members on Friday.

The result of the summer-long campaign pitting the foreign secretary against former chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak will be announced on Monday, before Prime Minister Boris Johnson formally tenders his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II the next day.

Postal and online voting by the estimated 200,000 Tory members began in early August, a month after Johnson announced his resignation, and concluded at 5 pm.

Truss enjoys overwhelming support over Sunak in polling of the members.

According to a report published on Tuesday on the iNews website, the pollsters are convinced of a Truss victory. Politico's poll of polls, which rounds up all of the most recent polls of Tory members, has Truss winning 59 percent of the vote, with 32 percent for Sunak, and 10 percent still undecided, the report said.

But the winner faces a vanishingly short political honeymoon once he or she returns to 10 Downing Street from meeting the queen in the Scottish Highlands.

The biggest threat now comes from the surging price of energy. Average annual bills are set to jump by 80 percent in October to 3,549 pounds ($4,130), before an expected rise to 6,000 pounds in 2023, decimating personal finances.

The Trussell Trust, which supports a nationwide network of food banks, says it sees a spike in applicants every time the price cap on energy bills rises. The removal of a 20-pound weekly boost to welfare benefits, introduced during the pandemic and scrapped last October, led to a similar jump.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research think tank estimates that one in five British households will have no savings left by 2024.

Tax cuts vowed

Truss has vowed tax cuts but those would do nothing to benefit the poorest.

For weeks, the Conservative front-runner has been ruling out direct handouts, and went further at the final hustings on Wednesday by repeating former US president George Bush's promise of no more taxes, which he broke soon afterward.

But writing in Thursday's edition of The Sun newspaper, Truss vowed to "deliver immediate support to ensure people are not facing unaffordable fuel bills" this winter.

"I firmly believe, in these grave times, we need to be radical," she added, previewing her Thatcherite agenda of reform to cement the Brexit legacy of Johnson.

Another challenge that presents for the next leader is a major strike. Staff working at Britain's business and energy department building will begin a strike on the same day as the country's new prime minister is named, the public service trade union said on Thursday.

Cleaners, security guards, reception workers, mail room staff and others at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will walk out on Monday and Tuesday over health, safety and other entitlements.

The action was "a sign of things to come" for the next prime minister, the Public and Commercial Services Union said.

Agencies via Xinhua