LONDON (HRNW) – Britain’s next prime minister Rishi Sunak has said little publicly about how he intends to run the country and how he will address multiple economic and political crises.
Sunak ran unsuccessfully to be prime minister earlier this year, setting out a full policy platform. Although some of the challenges have changed since then, what does that campaign tell us about how he will govern?
Britain is facing an economically toxic combination of recession and rising interest rates. The Bank of England is trying to tame double-digit inflation while consumers face rising costs and falling real incomes.
Britain has to restore its international financial credibility after outgoing leader Liz Truss’s plan for unfunded tax cuts and a costly energy price guarantee spooked the bond market last month and forced the Bank of England to intervene.
To balance a budget shortfall made worse by the rising borrowing costs that the crisis caused, the next prime minister will most probably have to oversee spending cuts and tax rises. A fiscal statement addressing this is due on Oct. 31.