Prime Minister Rishi Sunak marks his first year in office on Wednesday, October 25, taking over from Liz Truss’ brief tenure.
Mr Sunak won the Tory Party leadership contest last autumn unopposed and began his premiership after serving as an MP for seven years and Cabinet member for two.
Despite strong support from the Conservative Party he received no public mandate and has had to work hard to try and restore trust and integrity in his party and politics after months of scandals.
The Southampton-born former investment banker’s first task was to stabilise the economy after Ms Truss’ mini-budget wiped out more than £30billion from it in less than three months.
To start the new year Mr Sunak outlined his top five priorities which included halving inflation, growing the economy, cutting national debt and NHS waiting lists and passing laws to stop the small boat crossings.
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He has also worked to progress Brexit, agreeing on the Windsor Framework with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to remove trade barriers for Northern Ireland.
During his premiership, Mr Sunak has lost several by-elections leading to discontent among his backbenchers.
Although the Tories won Boris Johnson’s former seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip after his resignations, the party’s latest losses in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire have led to numerous Conservative MPs reportedly preparing to submit letters of no confidence in his leadership.
Latest YouGov polling from last month shows Mr Sunak’s net favourability to be at his lowest score to date at -45. Some 68 percent of Britons having an unfavourable view of him, the highest figure since he took office, compared with 23 percent who view him favourably.
Mr Sunak also pledged to unite the Conservative Party with the latest Techne UK tracker poll showing his party continue to trail Labour by 19 points. Sir Keir Starmer’s Party holds 45 percent in comparison with the Conservative’s 26 percent.
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