Polls give it well ahead of voting intentions: 32 points ahead according to YouGov. Members of the Conservative Party have until September 2 to vote and the result will be announced on September 5.
The campaign was violent between the two Conservative candidates to succeed Boris Johnson who resigned: Ms Truss, 47, a seasoned and determined minister, positioned very far to the right, and Rishi Sunak, 42, a former finance minister with political experience. limited, which played the card of a didactic honesty sometimes badly received.
In a country that has the worst inflation of the G7 countries, now at 10.1% and which, according to Citi bank, could exceed 18% in April, each has accused the other of responding to the crisis with unsuitable proposals, tax cuts for Liz Truss, direct aid for Mr. Sunak.
Everyone pulled Margaret Thatcher’s coat to themselves, even if the Iron Lady would not necessarily recognize herself in these rather smooth 2022 conservatives.
Rishi Sunak, grandson of Indian immigrants, defender of budgetary orthodoxy, accused Liz Truss of “promising the Moon to everyone” and highlighted his own record as finance minister during the Covid-19 pandemic , as proof of its ability to overcome crises.
But Liz Truss, who wants to be optimistic, says the recession is not inevitable and that it is possible to “unleash opportunities in the UK”. She wants to reverse all the laws inherited from the European Union, preaches deregulation, free trade and invites conservatives to be ambitious.
All the other subjects were practically dropped during the campaign.
– Britons worried –
Britons worried about a difficult winter with soaring energy prices, plummeting purchasing power and spreading strikes, have shown only limited interest in these two candidates who lack the charisma of Boris Johnson.
However, “in a party that has evolved towards populism, she (Liz Truss) has been able to present herself in a more authentic, more ordinary way than Rishi Sunak who finds himself easily assimilated into the globalized elite”, notes Tim Bale, professor at Queen Mary University of London.
“She easily manages to convey traditional conservative messages,” adds John Curtice, a political scientist at the University of Strathclyde.
Rishi Sunak, married to an Indian millionaire, also suffered from a traitor image that precipitated the fall of Boris Johnson. He had resigned at the beginning of July, followed by around sixty members of the government, weary of repeated scandals. Mrs. Truss stayed.
Since his resignation on July 7, Boris Johnson has managed the day-to-day business at a minimum, leaving the major decisions to his successor.
He went on vacation twice, to Slovenia and then to Greece, and started moving.
“Where are you?” Labor opposition leader Keir Starmer asked him again on August 26, after the announcement of an 80% increase in the price of energy for households, judging “absolutely unforgivable ” that the government is ” absent subscribers “.
Ms Truss, an MP since 2010 and by her own admission a mediocre speaker, has served in different ministries under three Prime Ministers since 2012. In her youth, she campaigned for the Liberal Democrats (centre) before joining the Conservatives. In 2016 she was opposed to Brexit before quickly becoming inflexible on the issue.
The choice of the new prime minister is decided by the only members of the Conservative Party in power – less than 200,000 people – – most white men, old and well-off, in a country which has some 46 million registered voters.
If she succeeds Boris Johnson, Liz Truss will become the third woman in Downing Street, after Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) and Theresa May (2016-2019).
The Conservative Party, fractured between various currents, has been in power for twelve years. All the polls indicate that he will lose to Labor in the next legislative elections scheduled for January 2025 at the latest.
