UK gets new PM

Two months after Boris Johnson announced his resignation as British Prime Minister in the wake of a string of controversies, Liz Truss has been named his successor. Truss, who served as Foreign Minister under Johnson, outplayed former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak in the race for the top post. However, she won’t get much time to celebrate her triumph as Britain finds itself knee-deep in a cost-of-living crisis, with a long recession — sparked by spiralling inflation which touched 10.1 per cent in July — looming large.

Truss’ functioning as PM will come under intense scrutiny right from Day One as she has promised to unveil a plan within a week to deal with rising energy bills and secure future fuel supplies. Direct support to households and tax cuts are high on her to-do list; how these steps will help reduce inflation is a moot point. Britain’s economic woes can be gauged from the fact that India has overtaken it to become the world’s fifth largest economy; what’s more, India’s lead over the UK is expected to widen in the next few years. On the bright side, Britain’s debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio is lower than that of other Group of Seven nations, except Germany. This might give the Truss government some leeway to help out millions of cash-strapped people, even as the responsible use of public finances will count in the long run.

What Britain direly needs is a stable, sincere and strong leadership, something which was conspicuous by its absence during Johnson’s scandal-tainted tenure. The UK has had enough of a PM who remained in the news mostly for the wrong reasons. Truss would have to adopt a no-nonsense approach to running the government. As far as foreign policy is concerned, she will be under pressure to scale down Britain’s involvement in the Ukraine-Russia conflict so that the domestic problems are tackled on priority. New Delhi has much to look forward to during Truss’ term, starting with the India-Britain free trade agreement which seems on course to meet its October deadline. Effective implementation of the defence cooperation pact, signed in April, is also critical for India.