Trailing in opinion polls, Rishi Sunak’s British Conservative Party meets from Sunday at a conference in Manchester in the hope of finding a formula to turn the situation around and avoid defeat in the next election.
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Opinion polls in recent months have projected the country’s shift towards the left, with a lead of around 20 points for Labor ahead of the 2024 election. Sunak, 43, has recently struggled to attract Conservative voters, especially car drivers. On Friday he outlined plans to prevent what he called “anti-car” measures adopted by some communities, such as the creation of zones with speed limits of 30 km/h.
Such measures attracted criticism when implemented in Wales by the local Labor government, allowing them to demonstrate differences with their opponents. He also recently relaxed some environmental goals, while ensuring that the changes would not prevent the country from reaching its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. Condemned by the opposition and environmental organizations, these rollbacks delay the phase-out of combustion vehicles until 2035. after an almost unexpected victory for the conservatives in a partial election.
The results were interpreted as a mass rejection of the extension of congestion charges for polluting vehicles across Greater London, a move taken by Labor Mayor Sadiq Khan.
– Tax pressure –
The Prime Minister will speak at midday Wednesday in Parliament after key government officials including Defense Minister Grant Shapps; from Foreign Affairs, James Cleverly, and from Home, Suella Braverman. “The stakes in next year’s election are enormous,” Sunak wrote in the opening program for the congress.
He contrasted the Conservative Party with the Labor Party as “two ways of doing politics (…) governing according to the long-term interests of the country, making difficult decisions fairer for the Conservative Party, or politically motivated short-term actions without measuring the consequences, with the Labor Party “.
Sunak, a defender of budget orthodoxy, is also facing pressure from his own ranks at a time when taxes represent 37% of national income, an increase of 3,500 pounds ($4,269) per household compared with the end of 2019, the data showed. Institute for Fiscal Studies. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt on Saturday dashed hopes of short-term tax cuts in an interview with The Times, first promising “the biggest transformation in public services”, particularly social services.
Even though his party has been in power for 13 years, Sunak is trying to present himself as an agent of change. He arrived in Downing Street less than a year ago after the tumultuous and short-lived mandate of Liz Truss and the years of Boris Johnson, who resigned after a wave of scandals after withdrawing Britain from the European Union. In January, Sunak stated five priorities for the economy, the fight against illegal immigration, health and the environment.
But the head of government emerged with 23% approval according to YouGov, his lowest popularity rating since he came to power. In Manchester, Sunak will also come under intense scrutiny over his alleged plans to cut the section between the northern city and Birmingham, the country’s second high-speed rail line.
Since the legislative elections in December 2019, when the Conservative Party led by Boris Johnson achieved a majority unprecedented since Margaret Thatcher, their lead has been gradually eroded through several by-elections. The Tories currently hold 352 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, ahead of Labor’s 196 seats.
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