Rishi Sunak is the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

By Kate Holton and Elizabeth Piper, Reuters

Without competition, Rishi Sunak was announced as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom this Monday (24), after his rival Boris Johnson dropped out of the race and Sunak was the only candidate to get enough support in the internal elections for leader of the Conservative Party.

Britain's Liz Truss resigned as leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister of the United Kingdom on Thursday (20), reopening elections for the post. The last election had been set just over a month ago, on September 5th.

Johnson, one of the frontrunners, admitted he could no longer unite the party after one of the most turbulent periods in British political history and did not run. The other possible contender was Penny Mordaunt, leader of the House of Commons, but she failed to secure the minimum of 100 supporters required and withdrew her candidacy minutes before the announcement. (Learn more about how the election worked at the end of this report)

The former finance chief will face major challenges, tasked with rebuilding the UK's fiscal reputation through deep spending cuts, amid rising energy, food and mortgage rates.

He will also preside over a party that has jumped from one crisis to another in recent months, is deeply divided along ideological lines, and a country that is becoming increasingly irritated with the conduct of its politicians.

"The United Kingdom is a great country, but we are facing a deep economic crisis," Sunak said in a statement announcing his candidacy on Sunday.

economic challenges

Britain is facing an economically toxic combination of recession and rising interest rates. The Bank of England is trying to tame double-digit inflation, while consumers face rising costs and falling real incomes.

Britain must restore its international financial credibility after leader Liz Truss's plan for unfunded tax cuts and an expensive energy price guarantee spooked the market last month and forced the Bank of England to intervene.

To balance a budget deficit worsened by the increased borrowing costs caused by the crisis, the next prime minister will likely have to oversee spending cuts and tax increases. A fiscal declaration addressing this is due on October 31.

This comes as the government faces pressure to help vulnerable families through a painful financial squeeze, with a surge in mortgage costs fueling increased prices for food, heating, and fuel caused by the war in Ukraine and other global factors.

Economic policies

In a statement released Sunday announcing his candidacy, Sunak said the country faces a "deep economic crisis."

As Chancellor of the Exchequer between February 2020 and July 2022, he set Britain on track to have its highest tax burden since the 1950s. He also established higher public spending, but simultaneously promised more discipline and cuts in waste.

During the previous leadership campaign in July, he criticized Truss's tax-cutting agenda, saying that he would only cut taxes once inflation had been controlled. At the time, he outlined a plan to reduce the income tax from 20% to 16% by 2029.

Sunak supported the independence of the Bank of England and stressed the importance of government policy working alongside the central bank to tame inflation.

Political challenges

One of Sunak's first challenges will be to show that he can control a Conservative Party that has a large majority in parliament but is riddled with factions that differ on key issues such as Brexit and immigration, as well as economic management.

Higher taxes will be strongly criticized by party members, while others will oppose spending cuts in key areas such as health and defense.

Winning the leadership contest is only the first step in uniting a party that ousted its last two leaders over internal differences and spent years debating with itself about how to leave the European Union.

Sunak supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum, but is still seen by some on the right of the party as too sympathetic to the European Union.

The key issue of trade with Northern Ireland is still being negotiated. Sunak may face pressure to secure a deal that rewrites parts of the initial withdrawal agreement without yielding to long-standing EU demands regarding trade between Britain and Northern Ireland.

He will also face calls to fulfill the government's promises to control immigration in the country, an issue that many conservative lawmakers see as crucial to winning voters in the next election.

Government program

Sunak's campaign launch statement on Sunday said he wanted to "fix our economy, unite our party and deliver for our country."

Regarding Northern Ireland, Sunak previously said he would move forward with legislation designed to unilaterally override the Brexit agreement while still attempting to negotiate with the European Union. The bill, currently in parliament, has been strongly criticized by the EU.

Regarding Brexit more broadly, in August he promised to "keep Brexit safe" and created a government unit to review EU regulations that still apply to British law.

In July, he said he was proud to come from an immigrant family, but believed Britain should control its borders and would stick to a plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

He also refused to rule out withdrawing Britain from the European Court of Human Rights.

How did the internal election work?

The leader of the Conservative Party, which holds a majority in the British Parliament, also assumes the role of Prime Minister of the UK. United Kingdom.

The process for choosing Liz Truss's replacement was to be done through an internal leadership vote among Conservative Party members. But the rules were somewhat different from the selection of Boris Johnson's replacement.

In the previous election, a congressman interested in running needed the endorsement of at least 20 other congressmen. Now, the required support was from 100 parliamentarians.

If only one candidate managed to garner such support, he would be appointed party leader and prime minister. If there was more than one, then a vote would take place. See below the rules defined by the 1922 Committee, responsible for coordinating the internal elections of the Conservative Party:

• Any candidate to become leader of the Conservative Party must have nominations from a minimum of 100 party MPs.
• Nominations were open until Monday the 24th, at 10:00 AM Brasília time.
• If only one candidate secured the nominations of 100 legislators, that candidate automatically becomes the party leader and prime minister. United Kingdom
• If there were more than one candidate, there would be a vote among the elected representatives from 11:30 AM to 13:30 PM Brasília time.
• If there are more than two candidates, the one with the fewest votes will be eliminated.
• The result of this vote, indicating the preference of the parliamentarians, would be announced at 14 PM Brasília time.
• If a second indicative vote were necessary, it would be held between 2:30 PM and 4:30 PM, with the result being announced at 5:00 PM Brasília time.
• The vote between the two final candidates would be conducted by the approximately 170 members of the Conservative Party via an online ballot.
• This vote among all party members would end on Friday, October 28th, at 7:00 AM Brasília time.
• The result would then be announced on the same day.