Wajahat Ali Khan
A survey run on the ConservativeHome website shows Liz Truss is ahead of Rishi Sunak by 32 points. Of the 961 Tory members polled, 60% said they wanted Ms Truss to succeed Boris Johnson. Conservative leadership hopeful Liz Truss appears set to become the next PM, according to a new poll. Liz Truss looks set to become the next Prime Minister, according to an influential poll of Tory members. A survey run on the Conservative Home website, known to some as the ‘Tory Bible’, shows the Foreign Secretary is ahead of Rishi Sunak by 32 points. Of the 961 Tory members polled, 60% said they wanted Ms Truss to succeed Boris Johnson, and a pitiful 28% backed Mr Sunak. It is the latest poll to put Ms Truss widely ahead of Rishi Sunak who has been dubbing himself the ‘underdog’, in an apparent bid to lower expectations. The Foreign Secretary was challenged by a Tory member in Belfast, who claimed Westminster had “undemocratically and unconstitutionally imposed abortion”. In 2019 MPs at Westminster voted by an overwhelming majority in favour of legalising abortion in Northern Ireland at a time when power-sharing talks had failed to restore the devolved executive. “We are a United Kingdom and we need all of our laws to apply right across the United Kingdom. That is what being a union is.”
The Foreign Secretary also said she “will not accept anything” that compromises on her demands over the Brexit deadlock in Northern Ireland. Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak pictured during a visit to the Kent Oncology Centre at Maidstone Hospital in Kent in February. Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak pictured during a visit to the Kent Oncology Centre at Maidstone Hospital in Kent in February. She said UK courts must be “the ultimate arbiter” of a deal, east-west trade must be “free flowing” and people in Northern Ireland “can benefit from the tax benefits delivered by the UK Government” before she will sign off a new arrangement. Stormont is in paralysis due to a breakdown of relations over the Northern Ireland protocol – a key part of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal. Britain is moving to override the Protocol and bin checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland – infuriating the EU. Ms Truss said: “It might take time to get this Bill through the House of Lords, but the sooner we start, the sooner we will finish, and I am determined to get it done as quickly as possible.”
