First let’s have that ‘tasty’ at Sunak. His nickname is ‘Dishy Rishi’, where dishy can be freely translated as attractive, a tasty snack. A typical British pun that fits well, because dish also means dish. “He is young and good-looking, but it also refers to what he did,” says correspondent Anne Saenen.
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Coronacrisis
“Sunak was Minister of Finance during the corona crisis, a very uncertain time. He came up with generous support packages for citizens and companies. After that, when the restaurants opened again, people could eat out for half the price. The government paid the rest. , to support the restaurants. Take-away food with a 50 percent discount. Those were very popular measures,” says Saenen.
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Sunak is considered the darling of the Tories leadership, the Conservative Party. Born in Southampton, of Indian descent. According to Anne Saenen, it could give Britain a real ‘Obama moment’.
“If it becomes Sunak, it will be special, he will be the first prime minister of color. The large Indian community here will be very proud, a victory over colonialism. The conservative party will also be proud. “Look what we can do with all of us But Sunak doesn’t have much in common with Obama. Politically, he’s a classic conservative.”
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Sunak has a glorious career. He was educated at the best schools such as Winchester College and Oxford. He became a banker, is commercially successful and very wealthy. And his wife Akshata Murty, daughter of an Indian billionaire, is even richer.
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Scandal
But not everything is equally beautiful. His wife is said to have benefited from favorable tax rules, which became a scandal earlier this year. And Sunak is the one who ushered in Johnson’s downfall by tendering his resignation as prime minister with an open letter criticizing his boss. After that, more followed and Johnson resigned. Many Johnson supporters will blame him for that.
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You say Johnson, you say Liz Truss. The 46-year-old foreign minister remained loyal to the prime minister. Saenen: “Critics say about her that she is Johnson in policy, but without his charisma. However, according to the bookies, the betting shops, she is his perfect successor. She is well-liked by the members of the party, and they ultimately choose the new one. Prime Minister.”
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If Truss does, she’ll be Britain’s third female prime minister. After Theresa May, and in the 1980s the legendary ‘Iron Lady’ Margaret Thatcher. She likes to emulate Thatcher. She had herself photographed on a tank in Estonia, just like Thatcher once did. She posted the photo on her Instagram account. And during an election debate recently, she wore the same clothes as Thatcher. See this tweet:
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Truss was born in Oxford, her mother even once took her to anti-Thatcher protests. She also studied at Oxford, worked at Shell and a communications giant before joining a right-wing think tank and entering politics. As Foreign Secretary, she gets a lot of praise for the British support – sending a lot of weapons – to Ukraine. And now she’s going for the highest office.
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“Truss works hard, but doesn’t really stand out. Still, she gets things done, previously also as minister of international trade during Brexit negotiations. She wants as little government interference as possible, taxes down. Conservatives like that of course. Sunak has said that taxes must be raised, because so much was spent during the pandemic. Everyone is concerned about that, that could be the deciding factor,” says Saenen.
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Sunak and Truss will campaign in the near future. The small 200,000 members of the Conservative Party are now all sent a ballot. In about seven weeks, on September 5, it will be announced who has won. That person then automatically becomes the new prime minister.
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