The former UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has a good chance of becoming the next prime minister of Britain, which will be the first time a person of colour takes that office. Oh well, diversity and all that. But, will he do anything about immigration? Old Boris did not, having promised it, and Sunak has also promised to get immigration under control. Maybe he might, given that the race card will be a difficult one to play against him. I guess we will have to wait and see. Britain is sinking into the swamp, so at the end of the day, try anything!
https://www.rt.com/news/559507-sunak-candidate-race-priorities/
“Former UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak says he will prioritize the issues of soaring prices and illegal migration if he is chosen in the Tory party leadership race and becomes Britain’s next prime minister, adding that he plans to put his government on a “crisis footing” from day one.
In a Friday interview with The Times, Sunak, a multimillionaire businessman, said he has spent his life “having to be tough to get results.” The recent scandal over his billionaire wife’s tax affairs only made him stronger, he added. “I’ve got the resilience to deal with some pretty tough stuff when it’s thrown at me, and I’ve got the energy and fight to keep going because I really believe in this.”
Commenting on his privileged background and the fact that he attended one of the most expensive private schools in the country, Winchester College, Sunak – also an Oxford and Stanford graduate – said that education helped change his life, and vowed “to make sure as many people as possible have the opportunity of a transformative education.”
Sunak stated that his priority as prime minister will be to contain inflation, which “has been consistently higher than people thought and has lasted longer.”
“So from day one of being in office I’m going to put us on a crisis footing.”
The former chancellor of the exchequer emphasized the difference between his fiscal approach and that of his competitor, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who has pledged £30 billion in tax cuts. He warned that this could lead to inflation becoming entrenched, which would “be incredibly damaging for millions across the UK.”
Sunak also promised to increase defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030, while Truss pledged 3%. “I’ll invest whatever it takes to keep our country safe,” he said.
Containing illegal migration is another key issue. Sunak says he will continue the controversial policy of sending illegal migrants to Rwanda, despite widespread criticism and legal setbacks. The former chancellor also believes he can build a more “constructive” relationship with French President Emmanuel Macron than outgoing PM Boris Johnson has managed – and that this will help Britain to tackle illegal migration as well.
According to the latest YouGov poll, 31% of Tory members plan to vote for Sunak, and 49% for Truss. To win, Sunak needs to sway to his side undecided voters, people who currently don’t plan to vote, and part of Truss’ electorate, the pollsters noted. The survey was conducted on July 20-21 with 730 Conservative Party members.
The winner will be announced on September 5, after a postal vote of around 150,000 Tory party members.”
“Tory leadership hopefuls Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, one of whom will succeed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, have finally addressed the issue of mass migration, largely ignored throughout their contest until now.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has backed the Australia-style plan to transfer asylum seekers landing in Britain — mostly bogus, given they are arriving mainly arriving from safe EU member-states France and Belgium — to Rwanda for processing and resettlement, although the scheme is yet to get off the ground, literally, due to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) blocking removal flights.
“As Prime Minister, I am determined to see the Rwanda policy through to full implementation as well as exploring other countries where we can work on similar partnerships,” Truss insisted, indicating that she would strike more Rwanda-style agreements with third countries.
“I’ll make sure we have the right levels of force and protection at our borders,” she claimed.
Rishi Sunak, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, also said that “thousands of people come into the UK illegally” every year, and that “[o]ften we don’t know who they are, where they’re from and why they’re here.”
“These are not bad people, but it makes a mockery of our system and it must stop,” he added — the former statement raising eyebrows, considering at least one boat migrant, who turned out to be wanted for raping and murdering a child in Austria, very much does appear to have been “bad people”.
Sunak described immigration as an “emergency” and said “we do not have control of our borders”, proposing solutions such as a refugee cap to be set by Parliament and holding migrants off-shore on cruise ships — which Truss’s team argued would violate the Human Rights Act.
“We need to break the cycle of these appalling gangs and stop people taking dangerous journeys across the Channel,” Truss said of her own plans to tackle illegal immigration.
“I’ll make sure we have the right levels of force and protection at our borders. I will not cower to the [European Court of Human Rights] and its continued efforts to try and control immigration policy,” she added, likely referring to the fact that flights taking migrants from Britain to Rwanda were blocked by an anonymous European judge even after the British courts had approved them.
Neither she nor Sunak have said they would end the European Court of Human Rights’ jurisdiction — which persists despite Brexit — however, as Attorney-General Suella Braverman had done while she was still in the Tory leadership race.”