Who will be the next PM of UK?
The Conservative Party leadership contest rules will be announced this week, and there is no clear favourite.
A number of Conservative Party candidates have announced they want the job after Boris Johnson announced he would resign as prime minister last week. The Conservative Party leadership contest rules will be announced this week, and there is no clear favourite.
Kemi Badenoch – In addition to holding junior ministerial jobs, such as minister for equalities, Badenoch has never served in government. She was appointed to parliament for the first time in 2017. Formerly a member of the London Assembly, she has also served as vice-chair of the Conservative Party. The 42-year-old Badenoch voted to leave the European Union during the 2016 referendum.
Suella Braverman- Braverman, 42, was heavily criticized by lawyers after the government attempted to break international law regarding post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland.
Under previous Prime Minister Theresa May, she served as a junior minister in the Brexit department, but stepped down in protest at her proposed Brexit deal, claiming it did not go far enough to cut ties with the EU.
Jeremy Hunt- In the 2019 leadership contest to replace May, the former foreign secretary finished second to Johnson. After the turmoil of Johnson’s premiership, he would offer a more serious, less controversial style of leadership.
As a former health secretary, Hunt has chaired parliament’s health select committee for the last two years and has not been tarnished by current government service.
Hunt voted to oust Johnson in last month’s confidence vote, which the prime minister narrowly won.
The president has promised tax cuts, including a 15% corporation tax cut. His preference is to cut taxes for businesses in order to spur economic growth, while tax cuts for consumers might lead to inflation. Prior to the 2016 election, Hunt supported remaining in the EU.
Rehman Chishti- Chishti has been a member of parliament since 2010, and was appointed a junior minister by Johnson this month after the prime minister announced he would step down. As far as we know, he has never held any other ministerial position.
Sajid Javid- Javid was the first cabinet minister to resign over allegations Johnson misled the public regarding sexual harassment allegations against a Conservative lawmaker. Javid, a former banker and champion of free markets, has served in a number of cabinet roles, most recently as health minister. In 2020, he resigned as Johnson’s finance minister.
He finished fourth in the 2019 party leadership election as the son of Pakistani Muslim immigrants. Besides cutting corporation tax to 15%, Javid, 52, said he would reverse an increase in National Insurance and bring forward a one pence income tax increase to next year. Javid opposed leaving the EU, fearing economic turbulence would result from a leave vote.
Grant Shapps- Shapps was first elected to parliament in 2005 and has been secretary of state for transport since Johnson took office in 2019. Prior to becoming co-chair of the Conservative Party, he held junior ministerial positions. Johnson has been his loyal defender, often appearing in the media on Johnson’s behalf.
As prime minister, he would address the cost-of-living crisis and he would hold an emergency budget in his first 100 days to reduce taxes for the most vulnerable and support firms with high energy consumption. According to him, he wants to freeze a planned rise in corporation tax and bring forward the income tax cut. Prior to the 2016 election, Shapps, 53, supported remaining in the EU.
Penny Mordaunt- Johnson sacked the former defence secretary after she endorsed Hunt during the 2019 leadership contest, when he became prime minister. According to Mordaunt, 49, she will work to recover from recent economic shocks, such as the pandemic, and deliver the benefits of Brexit.
A junior trade minister, Mordaunt has called the government’s COVID lockdown-breaking parties “shameful” and said that leadership should be less about the leader if she becomes prime minister.
Rishi Sunak- As part of his campaign video, Sunak promised to confront the difficult economic backdrop with “honesty, seriousness and determination” rather than piling the burden on future generations. The 42-year-old Sunak became finance minister in early 2020 and was praised for a COVID-19 economic rescue package that avoided mass unemployment. As a result, he later came under criticism for not providing enough cost-of-living support to households.
His standing has been damaged by revelations this year about his wealthy wife’s non-domiciled tax status and a fine he received for violating Covid lockdown rules.
Liz Truss- As the darling of the Conservative Party’s grassroots, the foreign secretary consistently leads polls conducted by the website Conservative Home among party members. Unlike Thatcher in 1986, Truss has carefully cultivated his public image, including a photo of him in a tank last year.
As Johnson’s first international trade secretary, she handled negotiations with the EU over post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland, where she has taken an increasingly tough line. Truss, 46, originally opposed Brexit but changed her mind after the 2016 referendum. Tom Tugendhat: The chair of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, and a former soldier who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, he is relatively untested because he has never served in cabinet.
Tugendhat, 49, has regularly criticized Johnson and would break with previous governments. His position on National Insurance has not been supported by him, and he has said fuel tax is “crippling” for many. In the EU referendum, he voted to remain.
Nadhim Zahawi- The newly appointed finance minister impressed as vaccines minister when Britain had the fastest rollout of Covid shots in the world. Unlike other candidates, Zahawi has a personal story of coming to Britain as a child as a refugee from Iraq.
Before entering parliament in 2010, he co-founded polling company YouGov. He was the education secretary at the time of his last job. According to Zahawi, 55, the burden of taxation is too high, so he wants to lower taxes for individuals, families, and businesses. The EU should be left alone, according to him.
Priti Patel- She stayed in government as scandal brought Johnson down, citing the importance of her job to national security, since Johnson became prime minister in 2019.
Under May, she was minister of international development, but she was fired over unauthorised meetings with the Israeli government. A hardline immigration proponent and Brexit supporter, she is known for her hardline stance.
Story of Rajapaksa family
In addition to Mahinda and Gotabaya, these individuals form part of one of South Asia’s most brazenly nepotistic political families.
Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is hiding in hiding, having fled his own people. On Saturday, there were rumours that he had left the country by boat or aircraft or was holed up in a military camp.
Since Gotabaya was booed out of Parliament on Tuesday (July 5), he hasn’t been seen in public. The former colonial governor wasn’t present when protesters seized the Dutch-built presidential residence. There were protesters who took selfies on the antique four-poster bed, bathed in the pool, and ate in the kitchen.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya’s brother, has not been heard from either. Exactly two months earlier, on May 9, Mahinda was ousted from power as Prime Minister in a day of violence.
President Obama has been determined not to step down since March, when anti-government protesters found a rallying cry in “Gota Go Home”. Sri Lanka has an executive presidential system and the office is filled through direct elections, so he was entitled to the remainder of his five-year term, which began in 2019.
In spite of this, he was clearly unaware of the extent of public anger at the government’s mismanagement of the economy, which he directly contributed to. When the LTTE’s military defeat occurred in 2009, Gotabaya believed his image as a “saviour” would see him through. He was Defence Secretary in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government at the time.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa believed that his military strategies against the LTTE and the later beautification of the capital city gave him the ability to govern the country.
Rajapaksa believed that his military strategies against the LTTE and later beautification of the capital city gave him the ability to govern the country. Clearly, it didn’t, and he wentof it up with his ill-informed tax cuts and his sudden call for farmers to adopt organic farming. Combined with the Coronavirus pandemic, all of it exacerbated the economic pain caused by the collapse of tourism following the Easter bombings.
On March 31, when hundreds of protesters attacked his private home in Mirihana Pangiriwatta, the writing was on the wall.
In the last four months, Gotabaya could have stepped down at any time, but he made his brothers Mahinda, Basil and Chamal resign, leaving the main demand of the people unmet. He also appointed Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister, thinking that would calm the protesters. In fact, it appears to have only exacerbated people’s anger.
He is now fleeing like a despot pushed out by the people instead of the democratically elected leader he had claimed to be.
During the first two decades of the new millennium, Sri Lanka’s history was largely shaped by the Rajapaksa family. As a political dynasty that is perhaps the biggest and perhaps the most brazenly nepotistic in South Asia, their spectacular comeback over 2018-19 offers insight into their tenacity.
Mahinda Rajapaksa became Prime Minister in 2004 during the presidency of Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike, a decision she later said had been her biggest mistake. When Mahinda gained power, he was unstoppable. Upon winning the presidential election in 2005, he launched an all-out war against the LTTE in the north and east. The role of Defence Secretary was played by his brother Gotabaya, who previously served in the Sri Lankan Army.
As a result of the victory over the Tigers, the Rajapaksas strengthened their hold on power. Mahinda and Gotabaya became god-like figures in the Sinhala-Buddhist community for freeing them from the LTTE’s terror. After winning a second term, Mahinda amended the Constitution to remove the two-term limit. There was no doubt in his mind that he would be president for life.
With his roles as Mahinda’s Defense Secretary, Gotabaya became a parallel power center that wields influence by spreading fear. By placing the throne-like chair above his visitors in his office, he had given his office a regal touch. Under his watch, dozens of people who were known critics of the government were abducted, some of whom were never seen again afterward.
In 2009, Lasantha Wickrematunge, editor of the Sunday Leader, was killed. Despite being reported missing in 2010, Prageeth Ekneligoda has not been seen since then. Rajapaksas also allowed the Bodu Bala Sena, a Buddhist extremist group that triggered several anti-Muslim attacks during this period.
His youngest brother, Basil, was minister for economic development and controlled all investments. Chamal was the Speaker of the House. Approximately 40 Rajapaksas held one or more offices at the time, and controlled most of the government’s finances. As a result of their grip, freedom suffered.
At an era when the regional giant began making inroads with India’s south Asian neighbors, Mahinda’s proximity to China began to worry New Delhi. As well, the United States was concerned about China’s growing claims in the Indian Ocean. Mahinda had begun to take voters for granted and his political arrogance had started to grate on voters. His presidential campaign in 2015 ended in defeat.
Though Mahinda’s defeat in the presidential and parliamentary elections was humiliating, the brothers bided their time. It was the Sri Lanka Peramuna Podujana that was used to launch their relaunch. Rajapaksas lined up their ducks when the Sirisena-Wickremsinghe government collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions, its failures evident in the IS-inspired 2019 Easter Day terrorist attacks.
On the back of people’s fears that terrorism would return to Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected as President later that year – after he reluctantly gave up his American citizenship.
After the previous government restored the two-term bar on the presidency, Mahinda led the SLPP’s landslide victory in the parliamentary election and became PM.
Why Indigo technicians are away from work?
More than half of IndiGo’s flights were delayed as a result of cabin crew members going on leave.
Indian Airlines’ largest airline IndiGo has seen two bouts of disruption caused by sick employees over the past 10 days. Cabin crew members went on leave en masse earlier this month, and a group of aircraft technicians reported being ill last week.
Air India, AirAsia India, AkasaAir and Jet Airways are conducting recruitment drives at the same time as a significant number of cabin crew members went on leave on July 2. As a protest against IndiGo’s salary payment, the aircraft maintenance engineers called in sick.
As a result of the cabin crew going on leave, IndiGo’s flights were delayed by more than half. Since then, the airline has improved its on-time performance. It has been reported that the technicians’ absences had no impact on the company’s business.
Even though IndiGo did not comment officially on either of these developments, it restored pilot and cabin crew salaries by 8% just days later. During the Covid19 pandemic, the airline cut salaries by approximately 28 percent, and this is the second partial rollback – the first was also 8%. It also mandated that sick crew members visit their respective bases for verification.
As a result of significant delays caused by cabin crew members taking leave, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) requested a report from the airline. It said it was a one-time incident in response to the regulator, despite the regulator directing it to compensate passengers who suffered as a result of the delays.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
