Britain’s new leader, Liz Truss, will arguably face the most profound set of crises of any prime minister in living memory. So what will be at the top of the South West Norfolk MP’s in-tray? NOAH VICKERS reports
Energy bills and the cost of living
The number one issue facing Ms Truss is undoubtedly the economy - including the soaring cost of energy bills, rising inflation affecting the cost of living and the looming threat of a recession.
The incoming PM has promised she will take “immediate action” to provide support with energy bills, but said it would take a week before she is able to reveal the details of her plan.
A report in the Times this week claims that she is poised to introduce an artificial price freeze on people’s bills, with separate support needed for businesses.
The government has also drawn up worst-case-scenario documents, detailing how four days of planned blackouts in January could be needed to help the country navigate through the energy crisis.
NHS
The NHS is in a state of crisis, as a worsening backlog of patients needing care has heaped pressure on the organisation.
Ms Truss has said she’ll appoint a health secretary to devise a clear plan for how to reduce the backlog and ambulance waiting times.
In interviews, she has cited the waiting times in South West Norfolk as an example of how patients have been left for unacceptably long periods of time.
To improve social care, she has promised to divert £10bn of NHS funds to support the stricken sector.
In King’s Lynn, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which has thousands of stilts in place to prevent the ceiling from collapsing in on patients, is still waiting to find out whether it will receive funding for a new hospital to be built in its place.
Ms Truss has said she is “very committed” to ensuring one is built.
Strikes
Ms Truss comes into office after months of strikes have afflicted a range of services and industries - most prominently on the railways.
Union bosses argue that wages have failed to keep up with inflation and that working people deserve pay rises. The government has claimed that offering such rises would make inflation worse.
Following strikes from postal workers, lawyers and other sectors, senior civil servants are now poised to become the latest group to go on strike.
Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol
Despite Boris Johnson’s promise to ‘get Brexit done’ at the 2019 general election, the consequences of the UK’s exit from the EU are far from over.
In Northern Ireland, negotiations have dragged on over how to apply the protocol agreed between the UK and the European Commission.
The protocol was designed to ensure that the land border on the island of Ireland remains open, but has provoked anger from parts of Northern Ireland’s unionist community, who say it threatens their place in the UK.
An EU source has told PoliticsHome that they have been expecting a “rocky few weeks” in the event of Ms Truss winning her party’s leadership race.
War in Ukraine
The war in Ukraine, which has been raging for more than six months now, continues to pose huge international challenges.
Not only has it resulted in around seven million people fleeing the country, but it has also had major impacts on grain exports and gas supplies.
Britain has been among the countries most closely aligned to the Kyiv government, and Ms Truss will have to decide how she will shape national policy as the conflict grinds on.
Levelling Up
Mr Johnson’s flagship policy to spread wealth and opportunity beyond London and the south east will come under the spotlight with a new prime minister at the helm.
Analysis conducted earlier this year by Bloomberg found that the opportunity gap between the most ‘left behind’ constituencies, and those in the country’s richest regions, had in fact widened since the 2019 general election.
Ms Truss has pledged to reverse the government’s decision to downgrade the Northern Powerhouse high speed rail project, which will link Manchester to Leeds via Bradford.
She has also promised to ensure the Treasury’s Green Book – which appraises whether government projects offer value for money – channels money into neglected towns.
Crime
Both Ms Truss and her opponent Rishi Sunak made efforts to show the Conservative membership that they are tough on crime.
In Norfolk, the county’s crime rate has risen to its highest level since records began, driven by sharp rises in sexual offences, violent crimes and harassment.
Ms Truss has said she will outlaw catcalling by making it an offence to harass women in streets and introduce a register of domestic abusers.
Uniting the Conservative party
Like her predecessor, Ms Truss has inherited a divided party. The circumstances of Mr Johnson’s departure had become deeply controversial, with some Conservative MPs believing he should have remained in post, and others believing he had become a distraction for their cause.
Despite inheriting a large Commons majority from Mr Johnson, she will need to ensure she wins the trust of Mr Sunak’s supporters in order to govern effectively.
Housing crisis
Britain’s housing crisis has made it harder and harder for young people in particular to get their first home.
Arguments within the Conservative party have made any major changes to the planning system difficult to achieve, because MPs are worried about what it would mean for the growth of homes in their constituencies.
Across much of Norfolk, rules designed to ensure that the county’s rivers become ‘nutrient neutral’ have prevented any new homes from being granted planning permission - rules which Ms Truss has said she will scrap.
More broadly, Ms Truss has said she wants to abolish national housing targets, which she has called “Soviet” and to give local councils more power when it comes to planning applications.
Climate crisis
Even as an extremely dry summer saw hosepipe bans introduced across much of the country, the climate crisis featured relatively little in the promises made by both Ms Truss and Mr Sunak.
Ms Truss has said that she is committed to ensuring the UK achieves net zero carbon emissions, but only in a way which protects energy security.
She has also said that she wants to see solar panels built on commercial roofs, but not on productive agricultural land.
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