British PM race: Liz Truss storms ahead of Rishi Sunak in latest poll

UK: Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has fast become the bookies favourite to become Britain’s next Prime Minister.

New polling from YouGov revealed a ‘significant lead’ by the Foreign Secretary. Of the Conservative Party members questioned, 62% were backing Ms Truss as opposed to just 38% in Rishi Sunak’s corner. The results put Trsuss ahead by 24 points.

Truss was forced to defend comments made while she was a Liberal Democrat at university in 1994.

As a teenager she said her party did ‘not believe people are born to rule.’ She defected to the Conservatives two years after making the speech.

Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty, who has been targeted for months for being a non-domiciled resident of the UK who had allegedly avoided paying taxes when her husband was raising them for others as chancellor, has made her first appearance at a campaign rally.

Their daughters, Krishna and Anoushka, were present, too, on Saturday when Sunak made a speech at a tyre shop in Grantham, the birthplace of Margaret Thatcher, the patron saint of the Conservative Party.

In an article in the Daily Telegraph, Sunak had declared: “My values are Thatcherite. I believe in hard work, family and integrity. I am a Thatcherite, I am running as a Thatcherite and I will govern as a Thatcherite. I will deliver the radical set of Thatcherite reforms that will unleash growth and strengthen our society and culture.”

After his speech, some Conservative Party members said Sunak came across as “charismatic” and a “strong family man”.

Sunak said tackling the backlog in the NHS was the biggest public services emergency. This is because 6.6 million people in England are waiting for hospital treatment. He plans to eliminate one-year waiting times by September 2024 and get overall numbers falling by next year. He argues a growing number of people are using money they cannot afford to go private. – METRO