Boris Johnson is set to give his final speech as prime minister on Tuesday morning as his successor prepares to announce her top team.
The day will begin with a valedictory statement from Downing Street by Mr Johnson at around 7.30am before he heads to Balmoral to formally tender his resignation to the Queen ahead of Ms Truss’s arrival. He is expected to use his address to urge Tories to rally round his successor.
It comes after it emerged on Monday evening that both Priti Patel and Nadine Dorries are set to quit their cabinet roles after Ms Truss won the Conservative leadership.
Ms Truss is expected to announce key members of her cabinet on Tuesday, with reports that a ‘bold’ plan to tackle the cost of living crisis and freeze bills will be introduced on Thursday.
But polling has found only one in five people in Britain are pleased Ms Truss will be their new prime minister after defeating Rishi Sunak in a gruelling six-week contest.
Another poll found that even Tory voters had no confidence in Ms Truss to address the energy crisis.
400,000 children eligible for anti-poverty benefit increase – in Scotland
Approximately 400,000 children will be eligible for an anti-poverty benefit increase from November as Nicola Sturgeon sets out a raft of cost-of-living actions in her Programme for Government.
The Scottish child payment is set to be increased to £25 per eligible child per week from November 14. The benefit will now also be open to all eligible under-16s.
The current payments of £20 a week currently help an estimated 104,000 youngsters under the age of six.
The First Minister will set out how the Scottish Government will help households and businesses cope with the cost emergency which she said “will cost lives”.
Speaking ahead of her statement to Parliament on Tuesday on the 2022/23 programme for government, Ms Sturgeon said the poverty-busting policy, which is not available anywhere else in the UK, is an important action to “mitigate the growing cost emergency”.
The payment doubled to £20 in April, resulting in a rise of 150% in less than eight months, she said.
“The Scottish child payment is unique to Scotland, the most ambitious child poverty reduction measure in the UK and an important action to mitigate the growing cost emergency,” she said.
Sam Rkaina6 September 2022 02:00
‘What next for Boris Johnson?’
There’s no job description for former prime ministers, except, perhaps, James Callaghan’s blunt injunction to ex-leaders: “Don’t speak to the captain; don’t spit on the deck.”
Boris Johnson, we may be sure, is just too temperamentally undisciplined to follow that advice.
Click here to read Sean O’Grady’s full view on the next steps for the soon-to-be ex-Prime Minister.
Sean O’Grady6 September 2022 01:00
‘We should wish PM Truss the best of luck – she will need it’
Liz Truss has won the Conservative leadership campaign. She will soon become the 15th individual (and only the third woman) whom the Queen has asked to form a government.
That, pretty much, is where the good news ends for Ms Truss – though everyone should wish her the best of luck for the sake of the country.
Her “mandate” amounts to the roughly 57 per cent of the Conservative membership that voted in the party’s internal election, or some 81,326 spectacularly unrepresentative activists, some resident abroad.
It is a rather lower majority than her predecessors achieved, or the campaign surveys suggested.
The party is split, and many openly bemoan the loss of Boris Johnson. There are jokes in poor taste about a leadership challenge to Ms Truss.
Click here to read The Independent’s full editorial as Britain wakes up to a new prime minister.
Sam Rkaina6 September 2022 00:03
Dorries ‘could be given peerage by Johnson’
It is understood Ms Dorries was given the opportunity to carry on in Cabinet but had chosen instead to return to the backbenches.
It is expected that she will now be given a peerage in Mr Johnson’s resignation honours list, triggering a by-election in her Mid Bedfordshire constituency.
A successful novelist who has sold more than 2.5 million copies, her departure from Government is expected to enable her to return to writing books.
During the leadership campaign, Ms Dorries was an outspoken critic of Rishi Sunak – in one controversial tweet likening him to Brutus stabbing Julius Caesar over the way he had turned on Mr Johnson,
As a minister she was involved in drawing up legislation to curb social media companies through the Online Safety Bill and led controversial moves to privatise Channel 4.
Sam Rkaina5 September 2022 23:36
Unions call for rethink on civil service job cuts
Usdaw general secretary Paddy Lillis said: “Many of us watched Liz Truss’s leadership campaign in horror as she demonstrated economic illiteracy by promising unfunded tax cuts, disparaged desperately needed help on rocketing energy prices as ‘handouts’, and launched ideological attacks on trade union members engaged in lawful industrial action to secure a fairer deal in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.
“Such an attack on people protecting their incomes would clearly demonstrate the incoming prime minister has no understanding of the very real issues that face workers.”
Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “I hope Liz Truss reflects on the important role our members play in keeping government running, and shelves plans to cut 91,000 Civil Service jobs.
“She must realise cuts have consequences, and, if she comes for our hard-working members’ jobs and working conditions, she’ll face opposition every step of the way.”
Rail, Maritime and Transport union general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Liz Truss should act in the national interest and play a positive role in helping to settle the rail dispute.
“This means investment in the railway infrastructure, unshackling Network Rail and the rail companies so we can come to a negotiated settlement on job security, pay and working conditions.
“This would be in the best interests of the travelling public, the rail industry and railway workers.”
Sam Rkaina5 September 2022 23:00
Dorries to quit as culture secretary
Nadine Dorries is to stand down as Culture Secretary and return to the Conservative backbenches, sources close to Ms Dorries have said.
Ms Dorries had backed Liz Truss during the campaign and was previously a strong supporter of Boris Johnson.
She is the second major departure today following Priti Patel announcing she was stepping down from her role as home secretary.
Sam Rkaina5 September 2022 22:55
Leadership race ‘wasted summer of ineptitude and inaction’
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Liz Truss will not solve the cost-of-living crisis by attacking trade unions and making it even easier for bad bosses to do as they please.
“At a time when we face a national pay cut, the prime minister should be taking on the corporate profiteers that are pushing up prices, not workers fighting to stand still.
“Attempts to place effective industrial action outside of the law are a direct assault on the democratic rights of the British people and will be met with fierce, prolonged resistance.”
Transport Salaried Staffs Association general secretary Manuel Cortes said the new Conservative Party leader had “offered nothing” to deal with the economic crisis during a leadership contest which had been “a charade about which candidate is the best Thatcherite”.
He said: “Liz Truss comes into Downing Street with millions of people in our country desperate for help in the face of an escalating Tory cost-of-living crisis.
“Truss has offered nothing to date which suggests she, or her party, have a clue about how to deal with soaring energy prices, inflation and much more, including giving our members a pay rise which stops them becoming poorer.
“At a time when the British people need serious government, rather than parlour games, this has been a wasted summer of ineptitude and inaction.
Sam Rkaina5 September 2022 22:30
Union leaders condemn length of contest amid cost crisis
Union leaders have been scathing about how long it has taken to elect a new prime minister and made it clear that Liz Truss’s top priority must be tackling the cost-of-living crisis.
Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said: “Leaving the country rudderless all summer at a time of great emergency has been nothing short of a national disgrace.
“The Government has got to get back to governing immediately. Liz Truss must do what should’ve happened months ago and deliver help to the millions unable to cope with their crushing bills.
“Many family finances may never recover without an urgent assistance plan. Tackling the cost-of-living crisis must be the prime minister’s number one priority, not wasting precious time attacking unions for trying to help working people through the pain.
“Hard on the heels of an energy lifeline must be an above-inflation wage rise for the public services currently haemorrhaging staff to better-paying parts of the economy. If there’s no-one left to run the hospitals, schools, town halls, police stations and care homes communities rely on, we’ll all be done for.
“Cutting taxes only assists the better-off. It won’t help the hospital porters, teaching assistants, care staff or other low-paid workers one bit.”
Sam Rkaina5 September 2022 21:57
London and Balmoral Castle facing hit with thunder, lightning and rain as Truss starts job
London and Balmoral Castle are predicted to be hit with thunder, lightning and rain on Tuesday as Liz Truss takes up her new role as prime minister.
The Met Office said thunderstorms are expected in the capital from midday onwards, with a chance of hail also bearing down on Westminster.
The weather could result in Ms Truss addressing the nation for the first time as prime minister on Tuesday afternoon inside No 10 rather than outside the Downing Street door, as is tradition.
Scotland is predicted to have a drier start before showers break out later.
In Ballater, Aberdeenshire, where the Queen is due to meet Boris Johnson and Ms Truss for the prime ministerial handover at Balmoral, thunder, lightning and heavy rain is predicted from 11am onwards.
Buckingham Palace said Mr Johnson is due to arrive at the door of Balmoral at 11.20am on Tuesday for his audience with the Queen.
His departure will, as is the custom, be private and off-camera.
At 12.10pm, Ms Truss will arrive at the castle door ready for her audience, which is expected to last for around 30 minutes before she departs at around 12.40pm.
The new PM’s departure, as is the custom, will be filmed.
Sam Rkaina5 September 2022 21:30
Group of protesters chant “Truss out” outside Downing Street
A group of around 100 protestors chanted “Truss out” outside the gates of Downing Street, as they demonstrated over the cost-of-living crisis.
Protestors from Don’t Pay, a protest group encouraging people to cancel direct debits for their energy bills from October 1, stopped traffic passing along Whitehall on Monday evening and made calls of “Truss out” and “Bill hike, pay strike”.
Sam Rkaina5 September 2022 21:15
Kaynak: briturkish.com