The Indian Panorama

Tag: British Prime Minister

  • British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and 15 ministers at risk of losing seat in 2024

    London (TIP): British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and 15 of his Cabinet ministers are at risk of losing their seats in a general election “wipeout” in 2024, according to a media report citing a new polling data.

    Senior Tory figures – including Prime Minister Sunak, Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab and health secretary Steve Barclay – are all at risk of defeat at the election expected in 2024, according to the polling data shared with The Independent newspapers. Foreign secretary James Cleverly, defence secretary Ben Wallace, business secretary Grant Shapps, Commons leader Penny Mordaunt and environment secretary Therese Coffey could also lose their seats, according to the Focaldata polling for Best for Britain. Only five Cabinet ministers – Jeremy Hunt, Indian-origin Suella Braverman, Michael Gove, Nadhim Zawawi and Kemi Badenoch – would cling on after the 2024 election, according to the poll. A new analysis shared with The Independent on 10 crucial “bellwether” seats – those who have voted consistently with the winning party in recent decades – shows that Labour is on course to take all 10. (PTI)

  • Indian- Origin Rishi Sunak next in line as UK PM deputy after foreign minister

     

     

    Given the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the UK, where the death toll has crossed 6,000, and its impact on frontline ministers, questions around leadership have been increasingly doing the rounds

    LONDON (TIP): The UK’s Indian-origin finance minister, Rishi Sunak, is next in line to deputize for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson while he is in hospital with coronavirus and in case UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is unable to carry on amid the pandemic, Downing Street has said. Sunak, who has been leading the UK government’s economic response during the COVID-19 lockdown as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, will automatically step in as part of an established order of precedence in the UK –  which does not have a written constitution.

    “There is an established order of precedence. The Prime Minister has appointed the Foreign Secretary [Raab] as his First Secretary of State. In line with the order of precedence, the Chancellor [Sunak] would follow from the Foreign Secretary,” Johnson’s spokesperson at Downing Street told reporters in response to a question about the chain of command at the top of the British government. 

    Given the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the UK, where the death toll has crossed 6,000, and its impact on frontline ministers, questions around leadership have been increasingly doing the rounds. 

    Sunak, 39, has had to table his maiden Budget as well as a series of mini budgets over the past few weeks to try and address the crisis faced by UK businesses as a result of the lockdown. 

    Johnson, 55, is said to be stable and responding to treatment after he was admitted to St. Thomas’ Hospital in London with persistent coronavirus symptoms and later moved to its intensive care unit (ICU) to be close to a ventilator. 

    “The Prime Minister’s condition is stable and he remains in intensive care for close monitoring. He is in good spirits,” a Downing Street spokesperson said earlier on Wednesday. 

  • UK snaps diplomatic ties with Russia: 23 Russian officials told to leave in a week

    UK snaps diplomatic ties with Russia: 23 Russian officials told to leave in a week

    British PM May says Moscow behind murderous bid

    LONDON (TIP): British Prime Minister Theresa May, on March 14, held Russia responsible for the nerve agent attack against a former Russian spy and his daughter as she expelled 23 Russian diplomats and suspended high-level bilateral contact.

    Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found collapsed after being poisoned last week. Both remain in a serious condition along with a police officer who came in contact with the same substance.

    Russia denies being involved in the attempted murder of the former spy and his daughter. “The Russian state was culpable of the attempted murder” of spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, May told lawmakers. She said Britain will suspend high-level bilateral contact with Russia and revoke an invitation to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to visit the UK.

    The Prime Minister announced that Britain will expel 23 Russian diplomats, saying they have one week to leave the UK. She identified those diplomats as “undeclared intelligence officers”, BBC reported.

    Moscow, which had been given an ultimatum to provide a “credible response” over how a Russian-made nerve agent came to be used on British soil, had warned of “an equal and opposite reaction” against any UK reprisals.

    The reprisals follow days of diplomacy since May first informed Parliament that there was enough evidence to conclude that it is “highly likely” that Russia is behind the poisoning ofSkripal and his daughter in Salisbury on March 4.

    “Russia’s record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations; and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations; the government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal,” she had said.

    “It was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom, putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk. And we will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil,” she added, giving Moscow a Tuesday midnight deadline to respond on the circumstances surrounding the attack.

    Downing Street said the British prime minister received the backing of Trump, who agreed in a phone call that Moscow “must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used”. Skripal was convicted of treason in 2006 and jailed for 13 years for selling secrets to MI6, which had recruited him in the 1990s.

    Meanwhile, France and Germany have also held Russia responsible for the murderous attempt in London.