The First Minister of Scotland and the Mayor of London have urged Liz Truss to freeze energy prices immediately, as part of a package of emergency measures to tackle the cost of living crisis.
Nicola Sturgeon and Sadiq Khan said the UK’s incoming prime minister must increase funding for public services and urgently increase financial support for those most in need.
Mark Drakeford, First Minister of Wales, said: “We must work together now, urgently, to tackle the cost of living crisis and save millions from hardship this winter. There is no more time to waste , we need to act now.”
Chronology
Liz Truss schedule
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Outline of the new prime minister’s schedule for the coming days
September 6, 2022
Tuesday
Early morning flight to Aberdeen in preparation to meet the Queen.
After Boris Johnson meets the Queen and leaves Balmoral, Liz Truss will arrive to meet Her Majesty and be named the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Early afternoon: Truss flies back to London, where they are likely to receive national security matters.
Mid-afternoon: Truss arrives at Downing Street and makes his first speech as Prime Minister.
Late afternoon and early evening: The prime minister begins making senior cabinet appointments and holds meetings with the civil service. Phone calls from world leaders.
September 7, 2022
Wednesday
Morning: first cabinet meeting
Noon: First PMQs against Keir Starmer
Afternoon: appointment of junior ministers and subsequent information sessions.
September 8, 2022
Thursday
Truss to unveil plans to tackle rising energy bills
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In a goodwill gesture to mark his victory in the narrower-than-expected Tory leadership election, the three leaders, all from parties opposed to the Conservatives in Westminster, pledged to co-operate with Truss if he pursued the right policies .
Sturgeon, who is expected to unveil emergency action on the cost of living crisis in her new legislative program for Scotland on Tuesday, offered the new Tory leader her well-deserved congratulations in a tweet.
“Our political differences run deep, but I will try to build a good working relationship with her as I did with the last three prime ministers,” Sturgeon wrote. “It must now freeze energy bills for people and businesses, provide more cash support and increase funding for public services.”
Before her election, Truss was widely criticized after telling Tory members that Sturgeon was an “attention seeker” who should be ignored. Truss later indicated he was referring to the Prime Minister’s calls for a second Scottish independence vote and insisted he also wanted constructive relations with Edinburgh.
Truss had also attacked Drakeford during the leadership campaign, calling him a “low-energy” Jeremy Corbyn. Speaking on BBC News, Mr Drakeford dismissed this and said the taunts “don’t matter to families across Wales who are living in fear of what this winter could bring”.
Michelle O’Neill, the leader of Sinn Féin in Stormont and Northern Ireland’s prime minister-in-waiting, urged Truss to abandon his plans to appease unionists by rewriting the Northern Ireland protocol, a move that threatens to tear up the Good Friday agreement that introduced power-sharing.
During the leadership campaign, Truss suggested he would rewrite the protocol to appease the Democratic Unionist party, which has refused to rejoin the executive as long as the protocol remains in its current form.
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“We need a serious change of direction from Liz Truss and the British Government,” O’Neill tweeted. “The Good Friday agreement must be respected and the result of the assembly elections must be respected. The people voted for real change and as Prime Minister-designate my priority is to restore the executive to deliver change.”
In an opinion piece for CityAM newspaper, Khan called on Truss to take a far more collaborative approach with regions and nations than his predecessors, setting out a detailed list of interventions to combat the economic crisis.
“What we desperately need now is a government that is focused on the economy, on investing in our public services and on supporting households during this difficult period, rather than a government that is intent on feeding the raw culture wars or playing our cities, towns. and regions against each other for political gains,” Khan said.
“In the short term, the new Prime Minister must take all necessary steps to ease the pressures on family budgets to ensure people can keep their heads above water.”