MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th October, 2022) Rishi Sunak, the third UK prime minister in two months, has been elected by the ruling Conservatives in the hope he will bring stability and oversee an economic rebound after the Liz Truss fiasco, British political expert Francis John Cole said Tuesday.
The 42-year-old former finance chief vowed in his first speech on Tuesday to guarantee integrity and fix the mistakes made by his predecessor. He also promised to bring the Tories and the country together as the United Kingdom heads into a deep recession.
"Sunak means stability, no more quarrels inside the party and alignment on sound economic policies. The Labour party cannot compete on this terrain with him. A majority of the Conservatives will rally behind Sunak," Cole, an author and former European civil servant, told Sputnik.
Conservatives have been struggling to turn around their flagging approval ratings that have slumped against Labour's in recent months. Cole conceded that Sunak, a multimillionaire former investment banker, was relatively unpopular among rank-and-file Tories. Despite this, he remains the party's best bet to win the next general election, due by January 2025.
"There is envy at his personal fortune of more than 750 million GBP ($860 million), not to mention that his wife is a billionaire, but his strength is that he is much appreciated by the parliamentary party; the Conservative members of parliament appreciate his deep knowledge of budgetary and financial issues," he said.
Sunak can be trusted with improving the country's image abroad after the "mercurial attitude" of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss's "mini budget" blunder, which spooked bond markets and briefly plunged the national Currency to a new low against the Dollar.
Sunak would never have made Truss's mistake of launching tax cuts without financing them, the expert argued. Right now, he is the best economist the Conservatives have, and the hope is that he achieves economic recovery within the year.
"He will above all ensure continuity: for the Conservative members of parliament the important thing is not to lose their seat at the next election in 18 months. With Sunak, they have a chance of being able to turn the table and regain credibility," Cole said.
