As Keir Starmer gets ready to engage Liz Truss in combat, Labour launched a last salvo at Boris Johnson’s legacy of “sleaze and inflation.”
Deputy leader Angela Rayner attacked the farewell address of the departing prime minister, claiming that he had presided over a decline in living standards.
Additionally, she said that Liz Truss was charged because she had worked for Mr. Johnson’s administration.
As Ms. Truss and Sir Keir prepared to spar in her first PMQs tomorrow, the jabs started to fly.
When the Queen requested Ms. Truss to form a cabinet this afternoon, she formally became Britain’s 56th Prime Minister.
After completing the “kissing hands” transfer of authority from the king, the newly-installed premier left the monarch’s Balmoral estate in Scotland.
The Right Honourable Elizabeth Truss MP was greeted in audience by the Queen today, and she was asked to establish a new government, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace.
Upon being appointed as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, Ms. Truss accepted Her Majesty’s invitation and kissed her hands.
If you heard Boris Johnson’s speech this morning, you’d think everything was pink and fantastic, Ms. Rayner stated this morning on College Green.
Actually, the legacy is scandalous, sleaze, the greatest inflation in decades, a cost-of-living problem, a decline in people’s quality of living, the largest tax load on the UK, an increase in GP waiting lists, a crisis at the NHS, and a demoralised workforce in our public services.
He spoke of levelling up, but Northern Rail has been levelled down. We’ve seen levelling down throughout the United Kingdom and partying when people quite frankly couldn’t see their relatives, and there was no acknowledgement of the scandalous behaviour from Boris Johnson – and of course Liz Truss was part of that Cabinet.
The fact that he thought it was funny and left by saying, “Bye, I’ve been a rocket and it’s been amazing,” when it had really been a damp squib and left everyone poorer, amazed me.
The future prime minister should address the rising cost of living by embracing Labour’s proposal for a windfall tax on gas and oil firms in addition to longer-term remedies like making investments in renewable energy and house renovations, according to Ms. Rayner.
Early this morning, Mr. Johnson left Downing Street for the last time after delivering a loud and traditional allusion-filled speech to the country.
The departing PM put on a brave face as he said, “This is it, guys,” while being observed by MPs, advisers, and sympathisers on the steps of No. 10.
After leaving via the fabled black door with his wife Carrie, he boasted that during a nearly three-year tenure, he “got Brexit done” and managed the “fastest vaccination rollout.”
He made it clear that whatever the financial hardship his “blackmail” on gas prices has caused, Britain must keep fighting Vladimir Putin’s aggressiveness in Ukraine.
Additionally, Mr. Johnson said: “The baton will be passed over in what has unexpectedly turned out to be a relay race” in a jab at MPs for abruptly removing him.
Midway through, the regulations were amended, but it is irrelevant anymore.
Laughter was also elicited by Mr. Johnson’s comparison of himself to a “booster rocket” that was being launched and his suggestion that he would stay out of harm’s way in a distant area of the Pacific Ocean.
I would only provide this administration with the utmost support, he said. It’s time for us to all rally behind Liz Truss because we will overcome this and emerge stronger.