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Newly selected UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss, has formed ‘the most right-wing cabinet for a generation’

People shelter from the rain outside 11 Downing Street as they wait for Britain's newly appointed Prime Minister Liz Truss to speak outside 10 Downing Street, central London, on September 6, 2022. (AFP)

The 56th and third female UK Prime Minister takes up the reins of power as the UK toils under spiraling levels of inflation, skyrocketing energy costs with an economy almost certainly in recession, and public services on the brink of collapse.

It's been dubbed the most right wing cabinet for a generation formed after the new PM, Liz Truss' fulsome support for her predecessor and a purge of defeated rival Rishi Sunak loyalists.

Some of the familiar faces include Kwasi Kwarteng, a free marketeer and ideological soul mate to Liz Truss, confirmed as Chancellor.

Ex-leadership candidate, Suella Braverman, admired by the right wing for "attacks on woke politics", appointed Home Secretary.

Staunch Truss ally, James Cleverly, promoted to Foreign Minister; on his in-tray, Ukraine and fixing relations with the EU strain after Brexit, among other things.

Close friend, Thérèse Anne Coffey, will be deputy Prime Minister and Health Secretary. The National Health Service is undergoing a staff and cash crisis.

Ben Wallace, the man who called the Russian president a lunatic, will keep his job as Defence Minister.

And another carryover from the Johnson administration, Jacob Rees-Mogg, a man who blamed the energy crisis in the UK on climate alarmists, will be Business and Energy Secretary.

What we therefore have is a very clearly defined agenda with Liz Truss surrounding herself by people she thinks will be loyal to her, and will share some quite central policy objectives, which I'd suggest are sharper than those of her predecessor.

Lembit Opik, Former British MP

The makeup of the Truss team goes against her pledge to use what she called “all the fantastic talents of the Conservative Party".

Liz Truss won less than 60% of the Conservative Party membership vote, and when she threw her hat in the ring for party leadership, she won less than a third of the Conservative MPs votes.

That means that she could have done herself a favor by trying to appeal to as wide a base of parliamentary support as possible. Especially because she will need her party's support for her plans for her three priorities, the economy, energy and the NHS.

So they might grumble in private, but they'll show the impression of unity in public. The biggest issue though for her is that if she does controversial things in legislative terms, which MPs think aren't going to work, then she could have problems.

Lembit Opik, Former British MP

The 56th UK Prime Minister takes up the reins of power as the UK toils under spiraling levels of inflation, skyrocketing energy costs and an economy almost certainly in recession, and public services on the brink of collapse.

It remains to be seen whether the newly minted Prime Minister, another delusions-of-Thatcher Prime Minister, and her cabinet can deliver on her promises.

 


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