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UK PM contender Liz Truss on Saturday (local time) promised to address energy bill problems right away if elected.
"If elected, I plan within the first week of my new administration to set out our immediate action on energy bills and energy supply... We need to take difficult decisions to ensure we are not in this position every autumn and winter. Sticking plasters and kicking the can down the road will not do. I am ready to take the tough decisions to rebuild our economy," Truss said in a Saturday article for a UK-based media outlet, reported Sputnik.
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who is widely expected to take over from Boris Johnson as the next British prime minister, says fixing the UK energy market is her first priority.
A source close to the Foreign Secretary told the publication that Truss would embark on a "two-track approach," which would include immediate financial support for British households and ways to resolve the energy market problems exposed by the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and the Ukraine crisis, Sputnik reported.
Last week, UK energy regulator Ofgem announced an 80 per cent increase in the energy price cap to 3,549 pounds (USD 4,194) per year starting October 1 due to rising global energy prices.
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Since its last revision in April, the energy price cap had stood at 1,971 pounds.
Ofgem CEO Jonathan Brearley has warned that energy prices are likely to continue to rise, and has called on the country's future prime minister to take new measures to tackle the problem.
Outgoing UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will soon be replaced as voting by Tory members for their choice between Indian-origin former Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss which started early August closed Friday evening.
This comes as Sunak, 42, and Truss, 47, have gone head-to-head in over a dozen debates over the past month to win over the votes of an estimated 160,000 Tory electorate.
The online and postal voting closed on Friday evening, the deadline for Tory members to register their votes. "Voting is now closed. Thank you to all my colleagues, the campaign team and, of course, all the members who came out to meet me and lend your support," wrote Rishi Sunak.
During their hustings, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak had explained their long-term visions for Britain. Both contenders went through bouts of 12 nationwide events with the first bout in Leeds, Northern England. All eyes are now on the results as members voted to elect a new leader. The result will be announced on September 5.
Truss indicated that she will strongly push back against "identity politics of the left" as she has envisioned the legislation for single-sex spaces such as domestic violence shelters whereas Sunak backtracked by putting forward the idea of cutting VAT to revive the country's economic situation.
Moreover, Truss has promised to introduce a moratorium on the green levy and reverse the National Insurance increase, responding to which Sunak said that direct financial assistance is the best way out to support people with low incomes rather than tax cuts.
On Brexit, both the Tory leadership candidates vowed to reset the relationship between European Union (EU) and the UK and said that the next leader will continue to create opportunities to re-establish the ties.
"The EU and UK are "at loggerheads" over the Northern Ireland Protocol but with a new prime minister we have a chance to reset that relationship," Sunak had said earlier in one of the face-offs with Truss.
Speaking to the Tory members on the economy, the former chancellor had said that he will reform the National Health Service (NHS) to prevent constantly throwing more money at it whereas Liz Truss underlined the need for a fiscal event to deal with the cost of living crisis and said that her first priority would be reducing taxes.
"My first priority is reducing taxes because what I don't believe is taking money in taxes and giving it back to people in benefits", she said, adding that country's growth is the need of the hour. Notably, corporation tax, policing and ethics were the key highlights in the Conservative party hustings in Birmingham.
Truss has been leading in surveys of Tory members after vowing immediate tax cuts as Britain confronts a slump in living standards. The former chancellor, Rishi Sunak and British Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss traded blows at each other over economic policy, and foreign relations in the first-ever TV debate on July 25.
The candidates reportedly clashed over Britain's future ties with China after cutting ties with Russia.
The second Tory leadership debate between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, however, got cancelled after presenter Kate McCann fainted and collapsed live on air.
In July, Sunak and UK foreign secretary Liz Truss emerged as the final two candidates in the country's leadership race of the ruling Conservative party. International Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt was knocked out in the final round of ballot among Conservative lawmakers. Sunak won 137 votes and Truss 113.
The contest to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister is now in the hands of Conservative Party members, who will select the winner on September 5 via mail-in ballot. Both candidates have made pledges on tax cuts as the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite.
However, Sunak dismissed as "fairytales" his rivals' promises of immediate tax cuts, arguing that inflation must be brought under control first. Truss, on the other hand, promised to start cutting taxes from day one.
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are vying to replace Boris Johnson as UK's next Prime Minister. The Tory Leadership Race was triggered after Johnson was forced to step down on July 7 amid an avalanche of resignations of government officials, who protested against his scandal-plagued leadership.
Johnson will continue to serve as caretaker prime minister until a new Tory leader succeeds him.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
