Rishi Sunak - Our New Prime Minister
After Liz Truss resigned, Rishi Sunak became the newest Prime Minister. Today we will talk about his history.
Job experience
His career began with Goldman Sachs after he graduated from Stanford, and he later became a partner in Children's Investment Fund Management and Theleme. His work in parliament began in 2015. During the period from 2019 to 2020, he served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. A Promotion to the chancellor of the Exchequer followed until 2022. Finally, he is currently the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Achievement
What he achieved after he worked in Parliament? As a result of the pandemic, he increased spending by 30 billion pounds and used 12 billion pounds to mitigate the economic effects.
An emergency support program of £330 billion and a furlough scheme for employees were introduced by Sunak in March 2020. Upon its introduction on 20 March 2020, the scheme will provide employers with grants of up to £2,500 per employee per month to pay 80% of wages and employment costs each month. In order to run the program, it is estimated to cost $14 billion a month. A Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was implemented on 1 March for a period of three months. The scheme has been extended by Sunak until June 2020 after it was extended for three weeks. Once again, Sunak has extended the scheme until 30 September 2021.
The third budget statement from Sunak was released in October 2021. Fuel duty was cut, VAT was removed from energy-saving equipment (such as solar panels and insulation), and national insurance payments were reduced for small businesses. In addition to promising a reduction in income tax in 2024, he vowed to match the main threshold with the basic personal income allowance as of July. Additionally, Sunak contributed some money to help those in need manage the growing cost of living.
The Eat Out to Help Out programme, a stamp duty holiday, and a reduction in the value-added tax (VAT) for the hotel industry were all part of Sunak's plan for an additional £30 billion in spending that was presented in July. Some individuals believe the plan was successful in growing the hotel sector.
Argument
Nevertheless, all of the policies he proposed did not work very successfully. He put out a number of policies, but none of them was really effective. For the first, as a result of the pandemic's financial effects, Chancellor Sunak's actions came under fire since some employees could not meet the requirements for the Treasury's income assistance programmes. After hundreds of MPs wrote the Chancellor, Ed Davey, the interim leader of the Liberal Democrats, claimed that individuals were being unfairly "hung out to dry" and that "their ideal occupations were turning into nightmares." The British Hospitality Association informed the Treasury Select Committee that between 350,000 and 500,000 workers in its sector were not eligible, according to the Institute for Employment Studies, which estimated that 100,000 people could not be eligible for any type of government assistance because they started a new job too late to be included on the job retention scheme.
The second one was likewise criticised. While Conor Murphy, the finance minister, said that it was still too early in the economic recovery, Diane Dodds, the economy minister for Northern Ireland, said that changes to the programme could be very difficult for some industries that are unsure of when they can reopen, particularly in the hospitality and retail sector. Additionally, HM Revenue and Customs inspectors thought that £3.5 billion may have been mistakenly given to criminals or paid out in error.
The third one further allowed Office for Budget Responsibility to bear the highest tax burden. It would reach its greatest level since the 1940s, they said. The additional spending in July also demonstrates how the plan helped the University of Warwick raise Covid by 8% to 17%.
His riches have recently come under fire from the media. He is one of Britain's wealthiest prime ministers, as many of us are aware. However, several legislators claimed that because of his riches, he is out of touch with the populace, which is already feeling the pain of rising inflation and is preparing for expenditure cuts and a possible recession. According to a Labour Party MP, it would take the typical nurse in the government-run National Health Service 20,000 years of labour to amass the same wealth.
Edited and Reviewed by Tanish Bagga.
References/ Further Reading:
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishi_Sunak#Member_of_Parliament