UK leadership favorite Liz Truss makes a U-turn on salary plan in first major failure
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, the front-runner to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister, was forced to withdraw her promises the day after they were announced after backlash from Conservatives and opposition parties.
In the first major failure of her campaign, Truss set out to save billions of pounds a year in government spending. Opponents said salaries for public sector workers, including nurses and teachers, should be cut outside the wealthy southeast of England. .
Truss said late Monday that it would introduce regional payroll boards that would adjust salaries to local cost of living rather than create a national pay pact.
But after Tuesday’s criticism, Truss said: But what I want to clarify is that I do not advance regional payboards. “
A U-turn occurred as polls showed Truss leading rival Rishi Snack to a much different extent.
A poll of 807 Conservative Party members conducted July 19-27 by Italian data firm Techne found that Truss had 48% approval, while former Finance Minister Sunak had 43%.
By contrast, the Times YouGov poll, conducted from July 29 to August 2, showed Truss extending its lead. She had support from 60% of her members, while Sunak had 26% of her, and the rest of her 1,043 members were either undecided or did not plan to vote.
A previous YouGov poll, conducted on July 20-21, found 49% and 31% split in support of Truss.
Shortly before the latest poll, the Daily Mail, one of Britain’s best-selling magazines and popular among Conservative voters, endorsed Truss despite her conversion. said there is.
“Sunak is a technocrat by nature, but he’s smart. Miss Truss is a true champion of low-tax small-state conservatism,” the newspaper said in an editorial.
“Speechless”
Truss’ public sector pay plan has faced criticism from the main opposition Labor Party and some Conservative MPs.
In the 2019 national elections, the Conservative Party promised to upend conventional British politics and reduce regional inequalities by winning more industrial areas of central and northern England, leading to a 30-year won the largest majority.
One Conservative MP who supports Truss said the miscalculation would hurt the rest of the campaign.
“It was a completely avoidable mistake, but I don’t think she will end up being prime minister,” he said.
Ben Hochen, the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley in northeast England and a snack proponent, said he was “speechless” at the proposal.
The salaries of millions of nurses, police officers and soldiers would be cut by £1,500 ($1,830) a year, Sunak’s campaign said.
Labor Party finance spokesperson Rachel Reeves said the Truss plan would have siphoned money out of the community.
“This latest turmoil has revealed exactly what Liz Truss thinks about public sector workers across the UK,” she said.
Sunak and Truss are battling about 200,000 Conservative MPs to choose the next prime minister, with the winner announced on 5 September.
So far, taxes have dominated the election campaign. Snack accused Truss of being “disloyal” to voters by promising immediate tax cuts, and said the tax cuts would wait until inflation is contained. Truss says it will push the country into recession.
More than 60% of Conservatives in the Techne poll say the Truss has better ideas than Sunak on taxes and inflation. They also supported her immigration plans.
Respondents, however, said Snak has better policies on Brexit and energy.
A YouGov poll showed a majority in favor of Truss for cost of living, immigration and defense.
John Curtis, a professor of political science at Strathclyde University and one of the UK’s leading pollsters, said it was hard to be sure Sunak’s campaign was over.
“Certainly in a race where fairly radical and audacious proposals were made by both candidates … I certainly don’t know what effect it had on the Tories as a whole,” he told broadcaster GB News. Told.
https://cyprus-mail.com/2022/08/02/race-to-be-next-uk-prime-minister-closer-than-thought-poll-shows/ UK leadership favorite Liz Truss makes a U-turn on salary plan in first major failure
