The head of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, withdrew her candidacy for the election of prime minister, so her rival Rishi Sunak automatically becomes the new head of the Conservative Party and, accordingly, the prime minister of Great Britain, the leadership of the British Conservative Party reported on Monday.
“Rishi Sunak has been chosen as the new leader of the Conservative Party,” said Sir Graham Brady, head of the House of Commons “1922 committee” that was in charge of the process of choosing a new leader.
Mordaunt, for her part, tweeted that she had withdrawn her candidacy for the prime ministerial election and said that thus “we have chosen our new prime minister”, noting that she fully supports Sunak.
Rishi Sunak was born in Southampton to a doctor and pharmacist on May 12, 1980. He graduated from the University of Oxford where he studied philosophy, politics and economics, and later received an MBA from Stanford University. There, the politician met his future wife Akshata Murthy, the daughter of the co-founder of the Indian multinational IT company Infosys, billionaire Narayana Murthy. Sunak managed to work in one of the largest investment banks in the world Goldman Sachs Group and hedge fund The Children’s Investment Fund Management.
In 2015, Sunak won the parliamentary elections in the Richmond constituency in West Yorkshire. He first entered the government under Theresa May in 2018, receiving the position of Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Sunak voted three times for May’s EU Brexit deal, but it was rejected in 2019, largely leading to her resignation and the rise to power of Boris Johnson.
After May’s resignation, Sunak supported Johnson as the candidate for leader of the Conservative Party. Johnson came to power in 2019 and appointed Sunak to the post of deputy head of the Treasury, but already in 2020 he went on a promotion and headed the Treasury, replacing Sajid Javid in this post.
On July 5, 2022, Sunak became the second minister after Javid to resign in connection with the Johnson scandals. Three days later, Sunak announced his candidacy for the post of the new leader of the Tories and, accordingly, the Prime Minister of Great Britain. The former head of the Ministry of Finance gained the majority of votes in all rounds of the election of the head of the Conservative Party, but in the final round he lost to former Foreign Minister Liz Truss. Truss took office as prime minister, but was able to hold it for only 45 days, after which she was forced to resign.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal is on a working visit to the German capital Berlin.
“We are working today in Berlin, we have a busy agenda. We started it with the opening of the 5th Ukrainian-German Economic Forum with Chancellor Olaf Scholz,” Shmygal wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to him, during his speech, he focused on the prospects that will open up for European business in the process of implementing the Ukraine Recovery Plan.
In particular, we are talking about the military-industrial complex.
“We aim to create a high-tech military-industrial complex, in particular, thanks to the transfer of European and world military technologies, attracting investment in design development and building military production,” he wrote.
Also, the prime minister said at the forum that the country has a significant potential for the supply of “clean” energy and Europe’s largest gas storage facilities.
“Digital technologies. In the future, Ukraine can turn into a digital hub of Asian and European backbone Internet traffic. The agricultural sector, whose investment potential is at least $34 billion. Green Deal. We see ourselves as a climate modernized state. European investment in pure Ukrainian production is a step to the implementation of the green transition,” Shmyhal said.
Ex-Prime Minister of Great Britain Boris Johnson said that he was not going to run for office because he would not be able to effectively govern the state in the absence of a united party in parliament.
“I passed the very high barrier of 102 support votes, but I came to the conclusion that this is simply not the right time,” Johnson was quoted as saying by Sky News.
He added that he had contacted Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt with an offer to “unite in the national interest.” Johnson also noted that he does not exclude the possibility of his return to big politics.
At the moment, among the Conservative MPs, Sunaka is in the lead with 144 supporters. It is noted that on Sunday several longtime allies of Johnson, including Swell Braverman and Steve Baker, supported Sunak.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has left for Kyiv, where he will hold several meetings to discuss topics such as the geopolitical situation, the energy market and security, government spokesman Piotr Muller told private TV channel Polsat on Friday.
At the same time, he noted that no significant or sudden changes would be announced during the visit, but this visit is a political signal to the Kremlin, reminiscent of Poland’s position in connection with the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
“We will support Ukraine in this very difficult situation, because we believe that Russia is violating all possible international standards. In addition, protecting Ukraine is also protecting our security,” Muller said.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin has arrived in Kyiv to express support for the Ukrainian people, The Irish Times said.
Ireland will stand by Ukraine in the face of Russia’s “immoral and unprovoked war of terror,” Martin said ahead of his arrival in Kyiv this morning.
“The bombardment and attacks on civilians are nothing short of war crimes, and I will use my visit to express Ireland’s support for moves to hold those behind these attacks fully accountable,” Martin said.
The Prime Minister of Ireland has arrived in Kyiv, where he is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Martin will also discuss with the Ukrainian authorities how Ireland and the EU can support the current and future needs of the country.
The Irish government says that Martin will personally see the destruction due to bombing and targeted attacks on civilians during the invasion and occupation by Russian troops.
According to the statement, the prime minister “will reiterate Ireland’s full backing for continuing sanctions against Putin’s regime, for Ukraine’s path to full EU membership, as well as our commitment to work with EU colleagues to ensure the reconstruction of Ukraine.”
“The spirit and resolve of the Ukrainian people has inspired us all, and Ireland will provide every support for Ukraine’s path to full EU Membership, and continue to welcome and support civilians fleeing this war,” the prime minister said.
Martin was invited to Ukraine last month by President Zelensky.
The exact details of the visit last night were not released due to security concerns, but Martin was expected to travel to Kyiv by land from Poland.
The tangible shortage of fuel at filling stations in certain regions of Ukraine, which formed this week, is associated with the enemy’s destructive strikes over the past three weeks on the fuel infrastructure of Ukraine, but this shortage will be eliminated within a week, said First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister Economics Julia Sviridenko.
“Over the next seven days, the deficit will be eliminated, since the operators have contracted volumes in Western Europe and now we are solving the issue of how to import them to the territory of Ukraine as quickly as possible,” she wrote on her Facebook page on Friday.
Sviridenko noted that this situation will lead to a slight increase in the price of oil products. “This is primarily due to the higher cost of logistics due to complex routes and the use of several modes of transport,” the First Deputy Prime Minister explained.
Speaking about the situation on the market, she pointed out that since the beginning of the war, through the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Economy, the government has been cooperating on a daily basis with market operators to provide the population and enterprises with oil products. Decisions were made that significantly reduced the impact on the economy of a sharp rise in the cost of petroleum products on world markets, in particular, the excise tax was canceled and VAT was reduced from 20% to 7%.
At the same time, Russia, as an aggressor country, is trying to stop the Ukrainian economy by creating an artificial shortage of fuel, Sviridenko noted. And the destruction of the Kremenchug oil refinery, which was the main producer of fuel in Ukraine, as well as a number of oil depots of market operators with a significant supply of fuel, led to a temporary shortage, which will be eliminated within a week.
As reported, currently the prices for gasoline and diesel fuel are limited by the government to UAH 34.10/l and UAH 38.7/l, respectively. However, according to the director of the consulting group A-95 Sergey Kuyun, the shortage of fuel determines its real price on the market at 40 hryvnia/l and 45 hryvnia/l, despite the government’s setting of marginal prices.
