LONDON (dpa-AFX) – The new British Prime Minister Liz Truss wants to present a plan to solve the severe energy crisis this Thursday. The conservative politician announced this on Wednesday at her first question time in Parliament. The energy prices, which have risen enormously as a result of the Ukraine war, are currently considered the most urgent task. It is feared that millions of people in Great Britain could slide into poverty. Truss was only commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II to form a government on Tuesday and replaced Boris Johnson in Downing Street.
In her inaugural speech on Tuesday, Truss had expressly praised her predecessor, on Wednesday she didn’t say a word about him. A MP from the opposition Scottish National Party, the SNP, who had described Johnson as “corrupt and worthless”, was called to order by Parliament Speaker Lindsay Hoyle and had to withdraw her statement. Johnson, who still has an MP, did not show up in the plenary for the session.
Unlike the former prime minister, who often heaped accusations on his opponents in parliament and gave them unflattering nicknames, Truss opted for a less confrontational stance. She first thanked Labor Party leader Keir Starmer for backing the move to support Ukraine. She also announced that she wanted to work with the opposition parties.
Truss announced quick help for private households and companies in the energy crisis. However, she ruled out an increased excess profit tax for large energy companies to finance the measures. “The reality is that this country cannot achieve economic growth through taxation,” said the Prime Minister.
Instead, she announced tax breaks and promised to expand oil and gas production in the North Sea and to build new nuclear power plants. It is expected that the topic of fracking could also be reassessed. So far, the controversial method of exploiting gas deposits in Great Britain has been subject to a moratorium. Labor leader Starmer accused Truss of wanting to burden taxpayers with the cost of freezing the energy price cap. The Prime Minister initially failed to provide a conclusive answer to the question of how her planned measures would be financed.
Truss was loudly supported by her own faction with shouts of “Yeah”. However, it is questionable whether she can be sure of the support of the Tories in the long term.
She primarily appointed close companions to the cabinet. So she made the previous economics minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, finance minister. Her friend Thérèse Coffey was appointed Minister of Health and Deputy Prime Minister. Former European Secretary of State James Cleverly will head the Foreign Office and former General Counsel Suella Braverman, a Tory hardliner, has been appointed Home Secretary. The arch-conservative Brexit champion Jacob Rees-Mogg is to head the Ministry of Commerce. The supporters of their inferior rival Rishi Sunak largely had to sit on the back benches./cmy/DP/jha