What challenges will the next British Prime Minister face? | World News

The end of Boris Johnson’s term as prime minister may ease the sense of political chaos, but it will not resolve the problems plaguing Britain.

“The next prime minister faces a range of issues, not least the cost of living crisis causing so much financial pain to voters,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Whoever succeeds him, winning the votes of Tory MPs and subsequent party members, will inherit an economy hit by a cost-of-living crisis as inflation accelerates at its fastest pace in four years.

With railroad workers, postal workers, teachers and barristers all declaring strikes or arguing about it, unrest among workers is already growing, drawing parallels to the 1970s and the mix of runaway prices and work stoppages.

Also read: Britain’s Boris Johnson agrees to resign, will be ‘caretaker prime minister’ until October

The new leader must also repair a divided party that looks exhausted after 12 years in power and suffers as Johnson’s government slides from one crisis into another. They will have to mend ties with the EU, which have been strained to near breaking point as Johnson threatens to renege on the Brexit deal he negotiated.

US President Joe Biden has also made it clear that he is concerned by Johnson’s attempts to scrap arrangements that keep Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market, while creating a customs border with the rest of the UK. Johnson was close to then-President Donald Trump, but he had a more frosty relationship with Biden.

In that year’s election, his Conservative Party won an overwhelming majority because of Johnson’s “Get Brexit done” message and his ability to appeal to voters in the north of the country who have traditionally preferred Labour.

His successor will need to figure out how to draw similar support from the “red wall”, especially as Johnson struggles to deliver on his campaign promise to “lift” the UK economy. They also have to regain the trust of the traditional Conservatives in rural and southern regions, which they abandoned in droves in favor of the Liberal Democrats in three special elections in more than a year.

Then there is the issue of growing dissatisfaction with the leadership of Westminster, Scotland. Johnson said in a letter to Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Wednesday that now was not the time to revisit the Scottish independence vote.

Also read: Brexit Exit: The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson

Last week, Sturgeon announced plans to hold a second independence referendum in October 2023, and vowed to take legal action if the UK government blocks it.

“With our country facing unprecedented challenges at home and abroad, I disagree that it is time to go back to a question that the people of Scotland clearly answered in 2014,” Johnson said, referring to the referendum when Scots voted against Independence increased from 55% to 45%.

In response to Johnson’s resignation, Sturgeon tweeted, [Scotland], the democratic deficit inherent in the Westminster government has not been addressed with the change of prime minister. Scotland will never elect any replacement Tory PM. And on the policy side, it’s hard to see what real difference a hard Brexit could make in favor of Labour. “

In a Panelbase survey, 48% of respondents supported independence, 47% opposed and 5% didn’t know.