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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Sunak, Truss looking for backing from financial sector

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In their bid to be the next prime minister of the UK, both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss regard the backing from the financial district of London – known as the ‘City’ – as imperative. Key politicians and financial services leaders have been revealing who they want as PM. These supporters are in a bid to sway the Conservative Party leadership race in favour of their candidates.


The ballot of Conservative Party members will close at 5pm 0n 2 September. The new prime minister will be revealed on 5 September when MPs return to Westminster from their summer recess.


While Sunak and Truss continue their war of words over the future of tax policy – with both having different views on it at present – and the role of the Bank of England in overseeing the City, key figures for financial services have been pinning their colours to their respective masts.


Hedge fund manager Andrew Law has come out in favour of Truss, as has Lord Spencer of Alresford, founder of electronic markets firm Nex Group. Law, who is chief executive officer of Caxton Associates, is helping finance the Truss campaign and has previously donated more than £3m to the Conservative Party. Law told The Times that it was “entirely appropriate and democratic” for Truss to want to review the Bank’s remit and her economic policies had received “unfair criticism”.


Sir John Redwood, the chief global strategist at fund manager Charles Stanley and Conservative MP for Wokingham, is also getting behind Truss. He wrote on twitter, branding Sunak “Mr. Flip Flop” on taxation: “Liz Truss offers us the fresh air of a pro-growth economic policy to sweep away the suffocating pessimism of Treasury Orthodoxy.” Allies of Sir John, a staunch Brexiteer who served in Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit in his early career, are urging Truss to appoint him as her chancellor should she win, according to The Express. Truss has also found an ally in Iain Anderson, the executive chair of influential City public affairs agency Cicero and former government LGBT Business Champion.


Meanwhile, she has scooped the support of several top politicians with a financial services brief, including former chancellor Sajid Javid, who accused Sunak of “sleep-walking into a high tax, low-growth economy”, and Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, the founder of Somerset Capital.


However, the weight of financial services support has not swung completely behind Truss. Former City minister John Glen and his successor Richard Fuller are backing Sunak. Treasury committee chair Mel Stride, Pensions minister Guy Opperman, business, energy and clean growth minister Greg Hands and Bim Afolami, the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for financial services and markets, have all pledged to back Sunak as well.


Former health secretary Matt Hancock, who has taken a keen interest in the cryptocurrency space since his departure from the cabinet, is another Sunak supporter. But cabinet minister, secretary of state for Wales, Sir Robert Buckland has changed his support. Having previously backed Sunak, is now in favour of Truss.


Truss has been criticised by Dave Penman, general secretary of FDA union for her claim she will tackle “woke” civil service culture that in her words, “strays into antisemitism.” He said her assertion is “inflammatory and will be viewed as “insulting and abhorrent.” Truss has also got the backing of cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt as well as defence minister Ben Wallace and chancellor Nadhim Zahawi. Other leading City figures with the ear of government are yet to go public with who they are backing. Meanwhile, Truss seems to have the edge in the race.


Andy Jalil.


andyjalil@aol.com


(The writer is our foreign correspondent based in the UK)


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