Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Jul 21, 2025

New UK prime minister to be announced on Sept. 5 as tax dominates contest

New UK prime minister to be announced on Sept. 5 as tax dominates contest

Britain's new prime minister will be announced on Sept. 5, with the first votes to begin eliminating candidates in a crowded and increasingly unpredictable and divisive contest to replace Boris Johnson coming this week.

So far 11 candidates have thrown their hat in the ring to succeed Johnson as leader of the ruling Conservative Party and prime minister after he quit following a dramatic rebellion by his own lawmakers and ministers after a series of scandals.

The 1922 committee of Conservative members of parliament (MPs) which organises the leadership contest said hopefuls would need at least 20 nominations from the party's 358 lawmakers to even proceed to the first round of votes on Wednesday.

Anyone who then received less than 30 votes will be eliminated before another vote follows on Thursday. Nearly all the contenders have promised extensive tax cuts to win over the support of their colleagues.

"I am very keen we get this concluded as smoothly, cleanly, and rapidly as possible," said Graham Brady, the committee's chair.

The field will be whittled down to a final two candidates by lawmakers, before a postal ballot of the Conservative Party's members, who number fewer than 200,000, takes place over the summer.

A poll for the Conservative Home website on Monday found former defence minister Penny Mordaunt was the most popular with members, followed by equalities minister Kemi Badenoch and Rishi Sunak, whose resignation as finance minister helped bring down Johnson.

"There seems to be a quite a big field at the moment, a lively contest," Brady said. "I hope we will have a very constructive contest, but (also) a really good opportunity for a proper, healthy, constructive debate about the future direction of the Conservative Party."

The battle to secure the top job comes after one of the most tumultuous periods in modern British political history, when more than 50 government ministers and aides quit, denouncing Johnson's character, integrity and inability to tell the truth.

The new leader will also have to reverse evaporating support for the Conservatives. A survey by Savanta ComRes on Monday put the opposition Labour Party at 43% compared with 28% for the Conservatives, its biggest poll lead since 2013.

The succession contest has already become personal.

Former finance minister Sajid Javid, another of the candidates, criticised what he called "poisonous gossip" and "attack memos" delivered by some colleagues over the weekend.

"This isn't the 'House of Cards' or the 'Game of Thrones', and the people who are here just because they enjoy the game, they are in the wrong place," he said. "This is a time for pulling together, not apart."


TAX CUTS


The issue of tax cuts was fast becoming the central battle in the race with nearly all of the candidates promising to cut business or personal taxes.

Setting out her pitch, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who has held ministerial jobs in a number of government departments including trade, justice and the treasury, said she would reverse the recent rise in National Insurance contributions and signalled a cut to corporation tax.

Fellow contenders Jeremy Hunt and Javid both pledged to cut corporation tax, while Mordaunt has promised to cut fuel duty.

Sunak is the early front-runner, but he is the only candidate who has played down the prospect of imminent tax cuts, saying the adoption of "comforting fairy tales" would leave future generations worse off.

This has prompted his rivals to attack his economic record after the tax burden rose to the highest level since the 1950s. One lawmaker confirmed that a dossier criticising Sunak's record had been circulating on lawmaker WhatsApp groups.


'FANTASY ECONOMICS'


Nadhim Zahawi, appointed finance minister in the turmoil of last week, said he was also being targeted by rivals after media reports raised questions about the former businessman's personal finances and tax record.

Whoever wins the leadership race will be faced with a daunting in-tray.

Britain's economy is facing rocketing inflation, high debt, and low growth, with people coping with the tightest squeeze on their finances in decades, all set against a backdrop of an energy crunch exacerbated by the war in Ukraine which has sent fuel prices soaring.

On the issue of immigration, all the main leadership candidates have pledged to keep the government's policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, showing how the party has moved to the right of the political spectrum in recent years.

Other candidates include the attorney general, Suella Braverman, the chair of parliament's foreign affairs committee Tom Tugendhat, and the transport secretary Grant Shapps.

Labour leader Keir Starmer in a speech took aim at an "arms race of fantasy economics" from the Conservative leadership candidates, claiming that more than 200 billion pounds ($239 billion) of commitments made by them over the weekend were unfunded.

Johnson has declined to endorse any of the candidates.

($1 = 0.8357 pound)

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Defends Attorney General Pam Bondi Amid Epstein Memo Backlash
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
King Charles Meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
If the Department is Really About Justice: Ghislaine Maxwell Should Be Freed Now
NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Antifada’ Remarks Spark National Debate on Political Language and Economic Policy
×