Conservatives could very well lose the next election under Liz Truss in just over a year’s time.
LONDON: Losing the UK Prime Ministerial race may work in Rishi Sunak’s favour. A general election is due at the end of next year. There is a general disaffection with the Tory party amongst the masses. Liz Truss, if she wins as is being predicted, will have to face a pretty volatile public, which wants relief from the enormous hike in the cost of living and rising interest rates. People are aghast at the sleaze that went on during Boris Johnson’s tenure. The National Audit Office revealed that the present government has awarded £10.5 billion worth of coronavirus related contracts without a competitive tender process. Some of the contracts have reportedly cost the taxpayer £800 for every protective overall delivered. At least £2 million worth of contracts have been issued to dormant companies. £10 billion was spent on unusable Personal Protective Equipment. That amount could have paid for 12 new hospitals.
Boris Johnson is planning to appoint many Lords as part of his grace and favours. House of Lords is an anachronism and an example of how distant the institution is from the ordinary people. The Lords need urgent reforms. It needs to shed its numbers drastically. Hereditary Peers and Peers for Life are privileges that are a throwback to the last century. An investigation by Sunday Times and Open Democracy has found that a donation of more than £3 million can get you a seat in the House of Lords. The House of Lords now has a membership of 800 which is more than the European Parliament and the second biggest chamber in the world after the Chinese National People’s Congress. The Lords get £323 a day plus travel costs just for attending the proceedings of the House. It costs £120 million a year to run the House of Lords. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for the abolition of the House of Lords.
There are many other glaring examples of sleaze in Britain today. According to Robert Barrington, professor of anti-corruption practices at the Centre for the Study of Corruption, University of Essex: “A system of mutual dependency has been created between donors, politicians, lobbying interests and potential employers which by most standard analysis looks corrupt—it is apparently institutionally corrupt while the individuals are not personally corrupt.”
According to the Independent Parliament Standard Committee, over the past five years, 17 MPs have claimed over £1.3 million in taxpayer funded rent, while collecting thousands of pounds by letting out their properties in the capital. The UK may even be the money laundering capital of the world. The US research group Global Financial Integrity estimates that $1.1 trillion a year flows illegally out of poor nations, stolen from them through tax evasion and the transfer of money within corporations. The corporate tax haven index published by the Tax Justice Network shows that three countries that have done most to facilitate this theft are the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. All of them are British territories. Jersey, a British dependency, also is a tax haven. The Financial Times journalist Tom Burgis, in his book, “Kleptopia” writes that wherever the dirty money originates it travels through London.
The “Revolving Door” sleaze is about movement of individuals between positions of public office and jobs in the same sector in the private and voluntary sector. Former Chancellor for Exchequer, George Osborne got a job in the private sector paying him £600,000 for working two days a month. David Cameron is alleged to have made £7 million for his association with the failed finance company Greensill Capital.
Due to these and many other reasons the Conservatives could very well lose the next election under Liz Truss in just over a year’s time. Sunak will then be very well placed to take the leadership of the Conservative Party. Sunak is very young and he can bide his time. The loss of the current contest will set him up very well for a future leadership role. The Indian community, meanwhile, is very proud that Sunak has come so far. Who would have thought that an Indian origin person would be a Prime Ministerial candidate ten years ago? The Indian community both from East Africa and India have done enormously well in the UK on all fronts and have won the hearts of British people.
Nitin Mehta is a UK-based commentator.