• Thousands of Britons took to the streets to protest the cost of living crisis.

    The announcement on September 23 of massive tax cuts for the wealthiest aroused anger and misunderstanding.

  • This plan, criticized by the IMF, sent the markets into a panic and the pound plummeted to a historic low.

  • The Tories are at their lowest in the polls, with the Labor opposition now having a 33-point lead according to a YouGov study published Thursday, the most not seen since the 1990s. According to another poll on Friday, 51% of Britons believe that the Prime Minister should resign.

  • Less than a month after arriving in Downing Street, Liz Truss will be on the BBC set this Sunday from Birmingham, where her party is meeting for four days.

The beginnings of Liz Truss in Downing street are particularly difficult.

She will therefore try to regain control this Sunday on the BBC set before facing her party, where anger is rising, for the annual Conservative congress.

The British Prime Minister has indeed lived through a politically and economically nightmarish week, concluded by demonstrations on Saturday.

Thousands of Britons have taken to the streets to protest against the cost of living crisis, at times burning bills as the government grapples with fiscal policy after a week of chaos in financial markets.

“Doing nothing was not an option”

Inflation at its highest, sterling at its lowest, worries about the approach of winter… The new Conservative government had promised immediate action to deal with the crisis, but the announcement last week of massive tax cuts aimed at the richest has aroused more anger and incomprehension than anything else.

The majority of Britons coldly welcomed the "mini-budget" presented by the government last week.

The announcements also panicked the markets and sent the pound sterling to an all-time low, prompting intervention by the International Monetary Fund and the Central Bank.

But “doing nothing was not an option,” Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng told the

Telegraph

on Friday evening to justify the massive tax cuts, the financing of which remains unclear.

He promised a plan to reduce debt in the medium term but the rating agency Standard & Poor's was skeptical, revising downwards its forecast for the sustainability of British sovereign debt.

In the meantime, to the incomprehension of the markets is now added the anger of the British.

According to a recent YouGov poll, more than half (51%) of the population believe that Liz Truss, in office for less than a month, should resign.

Often strangled by inflation that is close to 10% and worried about whether they will be able to warm themselves or repay their loans this winter, some refuse to pay their bills in October.

The government has announced a freeze on energy price ceilings, but prices have nevertheless doubled in one year.

Short social truce when the queen dies

In this context of exacerbated social discontent, the mobilizations which have multiplied since June in all sectors have resumed with renewed vigor, after a truce observed after the death of Elizabeth II on September 8.

The railway workers were thus on strike - the largest since the beginning of the year - on Saturday throughout the country, with only 11% of traffic assured.

Despite the severe disruption, the mobilization of rail is understood and supported by most Britons, according to an Ipsos poll.

Taking part in the protests, climate activists from the group 'Just Stop Oil' blocked several London bridges, calling on the government to 'solve the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis by stopping new investment in oil and the gas ".

A congress that promises to be gloomy

But more than the street, it is above all initially against her majority that Liz Truss will have to fight.

More unpopular than ever, the Tories meet from this Sunday, for four days, in Birmingham for their annual congress.

And given the context, this high mass promises to be gloomy.

According to the British press, letters of defiance are already pouring in against Liz Truss.

Some Tories are stunned by the fuzzy budget announcements while others are already missing former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, despite his antics and lies.

The high mass of the conservatives is therefore likely to take place with sparse ranks: neither Rishi Sunak, the rival of Liz Truss during the campaign for the head of the party, nor Boris Johnson should indeed make the trip.

Kwasi Kwarteng will speak at the convention on Monday, while Liz Truss will close the rally on Wednesday.

And if the duo have for the moment ruled out backtracking, they accepted on Friday that the British public budget forecasting body OBR present to the executive next week a "first version" of budget forecasts taking into account the costly government economic plan.

Planet

COP27: King Charles III will not go to the summit after the refusal of Liz Truss

World

United Kingdom: Despite the financial turbulence, Liz Truss assumes her "controversial and difficult decisions"

  • World

  • Liz Truss

  • Video

  • UK

  • Inflation

  • Demonstration