Rishi Sunak’s emergence as the leader of the Conservative Party, following the premature resignation of Prime Minister, Liz Truss, has ignited fresh calls for general election.
Truss resigned just after six weeks in office, setting the Tories up for a new leadership election that Sunak has won, making him at 42, the youngest Prime Minister in British history. He has also become the first non-white person to become a British PM.
The calls for general election, which are being made by people from across the political divide, are based on the belief that Sunak is just another choice of the Conservatives, and doesn’t reflect the people’s will.
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“The Tories have crowned Rishi Sunak as prime minister without him saying a single word about how he would run the country, and without anyone having the chance to vote,” Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said in a statement.
“This is the same Rishi Sunak who as chancellor failed to grow the economy, failed to get a grip on inflation, and failed to help families with the Tory cost of living crisis,” she added.
Rayner had accused Sunak of “dodging scrutiny”, implying that the Tories have been imposing their choice on the people.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister and Scottish National party leader, who had earlier voiced the need for general election, joined Rayner and others in calling out the Conservatives. Though she congratulated Sunak, she added that a suggestion of “one immediate decision he should take and one he certainly should not.”
“He should call an early general election. And he should not – must not – unleash another round of austerity. Our public services will not withstand that,” she said.
Sunak became the Conservatives leader after former Prime Minister Boris Johnson withdrew from the race. Sunak’s other challenger, Mordaunt, also withdrew from the race and endorsed Sunak after announcing just before the deadline that she had failed to gather enough support.
Another top voice on the call is Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats.
“The Conservatives have trashed our economy, pushed health services to the brink, and added hundreds of pounds to people’s mortgage payments,” Davey said. “Now Conservative MPs have installed another out-of-touch prime minister without giving you a say. We need a general election now.”
Sunak’s historic emergence as the Conservative Party leader mirrors his rise to political prominence. Born in the southern port city of Southampton by African-born Hindus of Indian descent, Sunak’s first major political score came in 2015, when he became a Member of Parliament for Richmond in the northern region of Yorkshire.
Over the years, the former chancellor has witnessed a swift rise in social status, with financial power weighty enough to classify him (222nd) among the richest in Britain. Sunak gained massive popularity during the pandemic, when he had created a personal brand for himself preaching economic-strains reducing measures.
While his pedigree has gained him a lot of support, with many saying that the choice of Truss was ill-conceived – setting the economy up for chaos, Sunak is still Conservative — whose leadership has come under heavy criticism in the past few years.
The leader of the Reform UK party, Richard Tice, echoed the feeling of many from the right, who are understood to be supporters of Johnson.
“We have a prime minister appointed by acclamation. His party members rejected him. Democracy is in peril,” he claimed.
The infighting among the Tories, which kept them largely divided on who becomes their next leader, saw Johnson zoomed into the race. Support for the former PM, though it was met with opposition from in and outside the party, drew a long line that has been adding to the call for election.
Dorries, a culture secretary during Johnson’s government, had called on Sunday for a general election. She tweeted that Johnson would have won the votes of Tory members and “already had a mandate from the people.”
“Rishi and Penny, despite requests from Boris, refused to unite, which would have made governing utterly impossible. Penny actually asked him to step aside for her. It will now be impossible to avoid a GE,” she said.
Sunak had said that the UK faces “profound economic challenges” and that he won’t be calling for a general election. The growing call for election even from the right, signals that he would be facing a mountain of opposition as a PM.