23: Rishi

Rishi Sunak warns of risk that markets lose faith in UK economy (August 30) Former chancellor says Truss’s campaign promises could force up inflation and increase borrowing costs ...... Rishi Sunak has warned that it would be “complacent and irresponsible” to ignore the risk of markets losing confidence in the British economy .......... Sunak said his leadership rival Liz Truss had made unfunded spending commitments that he feared could force up inflation and interest rates, and increase UK borrowing costs........ said he “struggled to see” how Truss’s promises of sweeping tax cuts and help for families struggling with soaring energy costs “add up”. ....... said that market confidence had been maintained through having an independent central bank, strong institutions and a “credible fiscal trajectory”. ....... “We have more inflation-linked debt by a margin than any other G7 economy — basically more than double,” Sunak said. “Because of the structure of QE [quantitative easing], we’re also particularly much more sensitive to an upward rate cycle than we have been.” ....... "What we need to do is just get a grip of inflation now. So that’s a combination of monetary policy, it’s making sure that fiscal policy does not make the situation worse and put fuel on the fire.” ....... He warned that if the Conservative party surrendered its reputation for fiscal discipline it could destroy one of its principal advantages over Labour. ....... uggested that while he expected Johnson to continue as an MP, the outgoing prime minister should accept that his time in frontline politics is over. .......... 60 members of the government all resigned, which you’d have to remember, it’s essentially unprecedented ........ and on Tuesday party members turned up in Bentleys and Porsches to hear Sunak’s pitch. ...... He joked that one of the best parts of the race had been “all these people coming up to me and say ‘wow you’re shorter in real life’”. ........ The biggest applause came for Sunak’s stance on cultural issues: “I want to take on this leftie woke culture that wants to cancel our values, our culture and our women.” .......... Sunak said he “always” tried to give Johnson the benefit of the doubt during policy disputes. “I was there to be supportive, to try and implement what he wanted. I always had a fair shot at making my case. Resigning from being chancellor is a big deal, it’s not something you should do lightly.” .......... “I was always only going to do this on terms that worked for me, in the sense I was going to be true to myself, true to what I believe was right for the country.”

Boris Johnson says he will not stand in Tory leadership contest Move means Rishi Sunak looks almost certain to be PM ........ After cutting short a Caribbean holiday, Johnson spoke to rivals Sunak and Penny Mordaunt in an attempt to persuade them to get on board with his attempted political comeback. ........ However, Johnson has said he is not running after only making it to about 60 declared backers by Sunday evening – well short of the 100-MP threshold required to make it on to the ballot.

‘I’m deadly serious’: why film-maker Michael Moore is confident of a Democratic midterm win The Academy-award winner has been emailing a ‘daily dose of truth’ to mobilize supporters of the party to vote in November