Rishi Sunak | InsideOjodu

England inflation bites as families struggle to feed

Hafeestonova — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 09:20:35 +0000

At St Mary’s primary school in London, almost half of children are entitled to a free school lunch owing to the fact they are from England’s poorest families.

And while charities argue that more pupils should be allowed access to taxpayer-funded meals amid a cost-of-living crisis caused by sky-high inflation, the government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is resisting such calls.

At 48 per cent of pupils, the proportion of St Mary’s children entitled to a free school lunch is far higher than the UK average.

“It’s shocking to think that a number of children and our families are struggling to make ends meet and are struggling to provide the food that they need for their families,” Claire Mitchell, part of the school’s leadership team, told AFP.

Other families who ought to benefit from free school meals cannot because they earn above the cut-off point, which stands at £7,400 ($9,163) per year in England.

The threshold is just set too low, and is out of step with the other devolved nations in the UK,” according to Stephanie Slater, founder and chief executive of charity School Food Matters.

“In Northern Ireland, the threshold is £14,000 pounds. In Scotland and Wales they are just beginning to roll out universal free school meals, meaning that every child in every school will eventually get a free meal at lunchtime.”

By comparison, just over one-third of pupils in England benefit from the assistance worth about £2.40 a day.

And according to the Child Poverty Action Group, one in three children in England which it says live in poverty do not qualify.

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Breaking News: Rishi Sunak emerges new UK Prime Minister

Hafeestonova — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 15:11:58 +0000

Rishi Sunak has emerged the new Leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party.

According to an announcement made by Sir Graham Brady, only one nomination was received by the 1922 Committee for the new leader of the party, and backed by 100 MPs.

Sir Brady, therefore, declared Sunak to be the next party leader, and consequently the new Prime Minister.

He confirmed that the new Tory leader Rishi Sunak will address MPs at 14:30 BST.

Earlier, one of the contenders for the UK top job, Penny Mordaunt, had announced his withdrawal from the race, leaving Sunak as the sole candidate for the position.

Mordaunt, in a statement, said, “Our Party is our membership. Whether we are elected representatives, activists, fundraisers or supporters. We all have a stake in who our leader is.

“These are unprecedented times. Despite the compressed timetable for the leadership contest it is clear that colleagues feel we need certainty today. They have taken this decision in good faith for the good of the country.

“Members should know that this proposition has been fairly and thoroughly tested by the agreed 1922 process.

“As a result, we have now chosen our next Prime Minister. This decision is an historic one and shows, once again, the diversity and talent of our party. Rishi has my full support.

“I am proud of the campaign we ran and grateful to all those, across all sides of our party, who gave me their backing. We all owe it to the country, to each other and to Rishi to unite and work together for the good of the nation. There is much work to be done.”

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Rishi Sunak may become UK’s PM

Hafeestonova — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 07:15:33 +0000

British Conservative Rishi Sunak was on Monday poised to become prime minister and the country’s first leader of colour, after the dramatic decision by Boris Johnson to abandon an audacious political comeback.

Just weeks after failing in a first attempt to lead the ruling Tories, Sunak could cap a stunning reversal in fortunes by winning the leadership as early as Monday afternoon, following ex-premier Johnson’s unexpected move late Sunday.

The contest, triggered by outgoing leader Liz Truss’s resignation on Thursday, requires candidates to secure the support of at least 100 Conservative MPs by 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Monday.

Sunak had crossed that threshold by Friday night, ahead of declaring his candidacy on Sunday and amassing nearly 150 public nominations from Tory lawmakers.

Johnson’s withdrawal from the race — before he had even formally announced his candidacy — left cabinet member Penny Mordaunt as the only other declared contender.

But she has struggled for momentum, attracting just two dozen public backers among her fellow MPs. Mordaunt is expected to come under growing pressure to abandon her leadership bid and end the contest quickly as Britain grapples with multiple crises.

If the 49-year-old resists and is able to garner 100 nominations, the race will be decided by the party’s roughly 170,000 members in an online vote later in the week. If it came to that, the result would be announced Friday.

Just two months ago, the members selected Truss over Sunak, who had more support among MPs. Mordaunt is popular with the grassroots.

First, however, the Tories’ 357 MPs would hold an “indicative” ballot — from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm on Monday — to show members which candidate commands the most support within the fractious parliamentary party.

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Sunak, Truss in Britain’s PM race runoff

Hafeestonova — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 17:22:30 +0000

Conservative rivals Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, offering competing visions for Britain’s response to multiple crises, will duel in the coming weeks to become the next prime minister after the party’s lawmakers held a last vote Wednesday.

Former finance minister Sunak, running on a centrist platform of fiscal rectitude allied with “green levies” to fight climate change, again headed the field with 137 votes in the fifth and final elimination ballot.

The crucial race for second place was narrowly won by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on 113 votes, against 105 for former defence secretary Penny Mordaunt.

Sunak and Truss now take their case to Conservative party members, who will decide the new leader and prime minister after a series of nationwide hustings in August.

The result will be announced on September 5. But Britain is already guaranteed to get either its first prime minister of colour, or its third woman leader.

Sunak’s resignation as finance minister this month helped to topple outgoing leader Boris Johnson after months of scandal including “Partygate”, and Downing Street is reportedly running an “anyone but Rishi” campaign.

At his last session of Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons earlier Wednesday, Johnson bowed out by saying “Hasta la vista, baby!”.

In a hint of support for Truss’s low-tax platform, the premier urged his successor to “cut taxes and deregulate where you can to make this the greatest place to live and invest”.

Truss tweeted that she was “ready to hit the ground running from day one”.

But whoever wins the Tory race, “like some household detergent, would wipe the floor” with the main opposition Labour party, Johnson predicted.

– Mordaunt moribund –

Mordaunt — the one-time bookmakers’ favourite — lapsed to outsider status after Truss’s fellow right-winger Kemi Badenoch was eliminated on Tuesday.

In a bid to woo those MPs, Truss wrote in Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph that her plan to revive the economy would be “based around tax cuts, deregulation and tough reform”.

Former minister David Davis, a backer of Mordaunt, accused Sunak of lending votes to Truss so he could face her in the runoff.

He wants to fight Liz, because she’s the person who will lose the debate with him,” he told LBC radio.

A YouGov poll published before the vote indicated that, despite his popularity with colleagues, Sunak was the least appealing candidate to the members.

The BBC plans to host a live televised debate with the final two candidates on Monday. Sunak won the two previous debates, according to snap polls, and the second one featured a no-holds-barred clash with Truss.

But Sunak’s popularity with the Tory grassroots has faded since questions were raised over his family’s tax arrangements, and as he presided over sky-rocketing inflation, which hit a new 40-year high of 9.4 per cent in June.

In a new policy announcement, Sunak vowed an “ambitious new plan to make the UK energy independent” by 2045 in order to prevent future energy-driven inflation spikes, after Russia’s war in Ukraine sent gas prices rocketing.

– ‘Fantasy economics’ –

Mordaunt had headed the same YouGov poll of Tory members previously.

But she slipped after a damaging few days in which her former boss, one-time UK Brexit pointman David Frost, slammed her work ethic and questions were raised over her stance on transgender rights.

Johnson announced on July 7 he was quitting as Conservative leader after a government rebellion in protest at his scandal-hit administration.

Under Britain’s parliamentary system, the leader of the biggest party is prime minister and can be changed mid-term without having to call a general election.

Labour leader Keir Starmer accused the Tory candidates of “fantasy economics” before turning his fire on the outgoing Johnson.

“He is a complete bullshitter and I think he’s been found out,” he told Labour prime minister Tony Blair’s former spin chief Alastair Campbell in a podcast.

Starmer attacked Johnson for the Downing Street “Partygate” scandal, which saw him fined for breaking the Covid lockdown rules he set for the public.

“It wasn’t just that he did things which broke the rules, it’s that he then took the piss out of the public with his ridiculous defences afterwards,” the Labour leader added.

It is “good for the country” that Johnson is going, Starmer added, saying it was reflected in public opinion at the last local elections at which the Tories lost hundreds of council seats.

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