UK politics live: Sunak to meet King Charles and give first address to the nation as PM

Key events 10m ago The front pages 38m ago What next for Penny Mordaunt? 44m ago Sunak’s likely cabinet picks 50m ago What next for Liz Truss? 1h ago Coming up 1h ago Welcome and summary Filters BETA Key events ( 6 ) Rishi Sunak ( 9 ) Liz Truss ( 6 ) Paul Johnson ( 3 ) Penny Mordaunt ( 3 ) 4m ago 01. 34 EDT When he becomes PM, Rishi Sunak will be doing many things for the first time in modern politics – he will be the first PM of colour, the first Hindu, the youngest since William Pitt the Younger. But he will be one of many, many, many in the British ruling class who have one thing in common: a PPE from Oxford.

This piece on the Oxford degree that runs Britain, by my colleague Andy Beckett, is worth a revisit: “Monday, 13 April 2015 was a typical day in modern British politics. An Oxford University graduate in philosophy, politics and economics (PPE), Ed Miliband, launched the Labour party’s general election manifesto. It was examined by the BBC’s political editor, Oxford PPE graduate Nick Robinson, by the BBC’s economics editor, Oxford PPE graduate Robert Peston, and by the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Oxford PPE graduate Paul Johnson.

It was criticised by the prime minister, Oxford PPE graduate David Cameron. It was defended by the Labour shadow chancellor, Oxford PPE graduate Ed Balls. ” PPE: the Oxford degree that runs Britain Read more 10m ago 01.

28 EDT The front pages Rishi Sunak’s victory in the Tory leadership contest and his imminent accession to the top of British politics leads the front page of every major newspaper in the UK on Tuesday. Our headline is “ Unite or die – Sunak’s warning to Tory MPs ”. Under a picture of Sunak receiving a heroes welcome at the Conservative head office in London, the paper’s deputy political editor reports that he told MPs he would “put an end to the Conservative psychodrama” and “prioritise ‘policies not personalities’”.

The story also notes that “he will become the third Conservative prime minister in under two months and the fifth in six years”. “He will also make history as the first Hindu to lead the country”. Guardian front page, Tuesday 25 October 2022: Unite or die – Sunak’s warning to Tory MPs pic.

twitter. com/xHoYCB9w2c — The Guardian (@guardian) October 24, 2022 The Financial Times focuses on the economic challenges that lie ahead for the new prime minister and says that the “markets look forward to ‘dullness dividend’ in the wake of Truss turbulence”. The paper quotes Tory MPs as saying they hope Sunak “will reassure markets and help hold down borrowing costs”.

Just published: front page of the Financial Times, UK edition, Tuesday 25 October https://t. co/bcxy2ISbXM pic. twitter.

com/hARvbBUuHI — Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) October 24, 2022 Under the banner “Our new (unelected) PM” the Mirror asks “Who voted for you?” Its main story says “twice as rich as the King, Mr Sunak will now preside over brutal public spending cuts” and carries a quote from Labour’s Angela Rayner who says “we need an election now. ” Tuesday’s front page – Our new unelected PM #TomorrowsPapersToday https://t. co/WUjJAwmV0k pic.

twitter. com/10aZGhZz0I — The Mirror (@DailyMirror) October 24, 2022 The Sun strikes a more ebullient note with, “The force is with you, Rishi”. The main image shows Sunak holding a lightsaber.

“Tory MPs turned to Star Wars nut Rishi Sunak as their ‘new hope’”, its political editor writes, but adds that his victory came, “without a single vote being cast”. On tomorrow’s front page: Tory MPs turn to Star Wars fan Rishi Sunak as ‘new hope’ without a single vote being cast https://t. co/rqZpb5qPju pic.

twitter. com/OsXEMvRBce — The Sun (@TheSun) October 24, 2022 Here is a roundup of all the front pages: ‘Who voted for you?’: what the papers say as Rishi Sunak prepares to become prime minister Read more Updated at 01. 37 EDT 21m ago 01.

18 EDT Aubrey Allegretti When Conservative MPs are asked privately if the party will pull itself out of a seemingly never-ending spiral of disunity now Rishi Sunak is at the helm , rather than reply with the affirmative, most instead say that “it can” or “it has to”. The new prime minister will expect to get a reprieve from colleagues’ acidic briefings as those who tried everything to keep him out of Downing Street slink away to lick their wounds and the more moderate doubters magnanimously fall into line. But the honeymoon period is likely to be short-lived, with Sunak facing many of the same problems his predecessor, Liz Truss , did, including dire economic forecasts and plunging poll ratings.

With nearly 200 public endorsements from MPs, Sunak was the clear favourite among the parliamentary party. However, he was still viewed with scepticism by those who were trying to turn the coronation into a contest between him and Penny Mordaunt or Boris Johnson. So riven were those on the government’s green benches that one admitted on Monday: “My head is with Rishi, my heart is with Penny and my soul is with Boris.

” Will Rishi Sunak find the fractured Tory party is ungovernable? Will Rishi Sunak find the fractured Tory party is ungovernable? Read more 28m ago 01. 11 EDT Rishi Sunak’s father in law, Indian billionaire N. R.

Narayana Murthy, the founder of software giant Infosys, says Sunak will do his best for Britain when he takes over as prime minister on Tuesday. The 42-year-old, a practising Hindu who traces his roots to India, will be Britain’s first prime minister of colour and its youngest leader in modern times. “Congratulations to Rishi,” Murthy, who is valued by Forbes at $4.

5bn, said in a statement published by Reuters partner ANI. “We are confident he will do his best for the people of the United Kingdom. ” 33m ago 01.

05 EDT Owen Jones Nearly 30% of all Britain’s postwar prime ministers will have been in office in the past six years, all from the same party. But the cause of this chronic political instability is not just Tory psychodrama: it’s an economic model that has failed to deliver rising living standards. Even before the surge in inflation and Truss’s move to crash the British economy with a series of lethal rightwing policies, wages were set to be lower in 2026 than back in 2008 .

There was once talk of the financial crash and the subsequent Tory austerity triggering a lost decade in people’s living standards, but the reality we now face is a lost generation. Too often, political reporting reduces British politics to soap opera, to personality-driven machinations: to do so strips away the much more profound drivers of political turmoil. What, then, does the ascent of Rishi Sunak mean for all this? That he has been widely painted as a relative Tory moderate is a political travesty: Sunak is easily to the right of Johnson on economic policy.

The anonymous briefing of one senior Sunak ally underlined why so many Tory MPs were uneasy with Johnson, and it wasn’t because of his addiction to deceit: “There is no evidence that during his time as prime minister he grasped the need for restraint in spending or had any understanding of how the public finances worked. ” Johnson, they believed, was opposed to a renewed bout of austerity and lacked a true-blue ideological commitment to rolling back the frontiers of the state. Sunak, on the other hand, will gleefully wield the scalpel, from real-terms pay cuts for the key workers who were hypocritically applauded by Tory ministers in the pandemic, to the core services that a healthy society depends on to function.

Sunak must believe that he will escape the same fate as his four predecessors – three of whom were more experienced than him – even as he is likely to oversee a more dramatic plunge in living standards than any of them. Sunak is likely to be the fifth and final Tory prime minister of this era whose career will end in humiliating failure, in his case an electoral rout at the hands of the Labour party will probably be his final chapter: Rishi Sunak will leave the economy in a hole – Labour will have to think big to dig it out | Owen Jones Read more 38m ago 01. 00 EDT What next for Penny Mordaunt? Sunak will need a woman in one of the four great offices of state and the most obvious choice would be to make Penny Mordaunt foreign secretary.

Having come third in the last leadership contest, she was tipped as a possible foreign secretary but had to settle for Commons leader. Mordaunt is likely to push for a much more senior role in Sunak’s team, though some of his backers have been irritated by her refusal to pull out of the contest sooner. Although she twice deviated from government policy under Truss (on cutting corporation tax and raising benefits in line with inflation), she is seen as a skilled communicator who carries a strong sway with parts of the parliamentary party and certainly many Tory members.

44m ago 00. 54 EDT Sunak’s likely cabinet picks Rishi Sunak has pledged to build a cabinet of all the talents but, given the swiftness of the leadership competition, relatively little has been briefed about his potential cabinet. His team say no roles have been promised to any backers and Sunak was in the enviable position as the frontrunner of not needing to promise roles to anyone.

But he will have been buoyed up by the backing of MPs from the right and left of the party, which will help him build a “unity cabinet”. Here is where some of the main characters are likely to end up, according to our political journalists Jessica Elgot, Rowena Mason, Peter Walker and Aubrey Allegretti: Who is Rishi Sunak? Everything you need to know about Britain’s next prime minister Read more 50m ago 00. 48 EDT What next for Liz Truss? Peter Walker While Liz Truss’s official spokesperson insisted she was still “working from Downing Street” on Monday, in reality she has just one more real task left from what will be precisely 50 days as prime minister: departing from the role.

Truss’s aides refuse to say what she might do next, and it is likely she does not know herself. Aged just 47 and a former accountant, she could certainly make a living outside politics, even if not on the level of Johnson or even of Theresa May, who combines being a backbencher with earning £100,000-plus a time giving speeches to US corporations. It seems most likely Truss will remain in parliament.

There she will face what will perhaps be her most difficult task: carving out a role as a grandee, a former occupant of No 10, but one who was only there for seven weeks, almost all of which was defined by chaos and disaster. It is an unprecedented challenge, for an unprecedented prime-ministership. Last morning in No 10 is straightforward – but what now for Liz Truss? Read more 1h ago 00.

40 EDT Coming up This is the expected order of events this morning: 9am: Liz Truss will chair her final Cabinet 10. 15am: Truss will make a statement outside No 10 Downing Street. Then she will go to Buckingham Palace to offer her resignation to the King.

The King will then meet new Conservative leader Rishi Sunak and invite him to form a government. 11. 35am: Sunak will make a statement in Downing Street before entering as Prime Minister.

Inside, civil service staff will guide a new team of political appointees through what is known as “onboarding”, involving everything from computer log-ins to security passes. Sunak will also put the finishing touches on his cabinet. 1h ago 00.

33 EDT Welcome and summary Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the appointment of the UK’s third prime minister in as many months, Rishi Sunak . Long may he be blogged. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be taking you through the latest for the next few hours.

You can find me on Twitter here if you have questions, queries, thoughts, prayers. Outgoing PM Liz Truss is expected to hold her final cabinet meeting this morning, on her 50th day on the job, before making a departing statement at Downing Street at 10. 15am, then heading to Buckingham Palace to tender her resignation to King Charles.

Sunak will then meet with the King before addressing the nation from Downing Street at noon as the country’s first prime minister of colour and first Hindu prime minister. His huge margin of support from both the right and left of the party will mean he has a free hand in choosing his cabinet. Here are the latest developments in the UK leadership news: Rishi Sunak won the Tory leadership contest without a vote being cast after rivals Penny Mordaunt and Boris Johnson dropped out, and will replace Liz Truss in No 10 on Tuesday.

Sunak is expected to address the nation just before noon, before entering No 10 as the UK’s first Hindu prime minister, the first of Asian heritage, and the youngest for more than 200 years at the age of 42. Sunak has said he will look to build a cabinet of “all the talents” that will see the political return of the “adults”, according to reports. Mordaunt, who bowed out of the race after failing to get 100 nominations from Tory MPs, is expected to get a promotion – with some speculating that she could replace James Cleverly as foreign secretary.

Sunak ruled out an early general election demanded by opposition parties as the Tories move onto their third prime minister since Boris Johnson won in 2019. Sunak told Conservative MPs behind closed doors in the House of Commons they face an “existential moment”. Three MPs in the room said his message to the party was they must “unite or die” , as they focus on delivering on the public’s priorities during a cost-of-living crisis.

Topics Rishi Sunak Conservatives Liz Truss Reuse this content.