LONDON – The flowers have been cleared. Union Jack no longer flies at half a foot. The ad has replaced the image of Queen Elizabeth II on the bus shelter. A day after burying their venerable king, Britons returned to normal on Tuesday to face a series of pressing issues they’ve posed during 10 days of mourning.
Hours after the funeral ended, Prime Minister Liz Truss was on her way to New York, where she was holding a round of diplomatic meetings on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, which could create a buzz for the relationship of the United Nations. Britain with the United States and the European Union. while she was in office.
At home, her government will launch major initiatives this week to confront a range of social and economic problems facing Britain: soaring energy costs; rising inflation; pressure on public services, most notably the National Health Service; higher interest rates; and the specter of a recession.
While the queen’s death on 8 September catapulted Ms Truss to global fame, giving her a speaking role before hundreds of world leaders at the funeral at Westminster Abbey, it also made interrupted her plans to commence activities, with Parliament being suspended just days later. she moved to Downing Street.
On Wednesday, Ms. Truss is scheduled to meet with President Biden and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. On Tuesday, she met with President Emmanuel Macron of France, whom she refused to consider a friend or foe during her recent campaign to lead the Conservative Party.
En route to New York, Ms. Truss told reporters that Britain no longer expected to negotiate a trade deal with the US in the “short to medium term”. On one level, it was merely an acknowledgment of what had long been obvious. But analysts say it is also designed to remove any leverage the Biden administration has in pressuring Britain to resolve its dispute with the European Union over trade in Northern Ireland.
With a transatlantic trade deal off the table, these analysts say, Ms. Truss could be tougher in her negotiations with Brussels over post-Brexit trade deals in the North. Those talks have reached a stalemate and Britain has enacted legislation that could change existing rules it has negotiated and agreed to, raising fears that tensions could flare into a conflict full-blown trade war.
Mujtaba Rahman, an analyst with Eurasia Group, a political risk consulting firm, said: “The goal is effective US leverage over the Protocol issue. “There is less reason for her not to take a hard line on the EU”
Ms Truss argues that Brussels needs to accept major changes to the Protocol to overcome the trade disruptions and political paralysis caused by the deal on Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK but shares an open border. with neighboring Ireland, a member. of the European Union.
To keep that border open, Britain has accepted inspection of goods flowing from the British mainland to Northern Ireland. But the deal alienated the main pro-union party in the North, which refused to join the power-sharing government until Britain overhauled it. The legislation, which Ms. Truss introduced as foreign secretary, would result in the UK unilaterally rescinding the rules.
The White House has repeatedly warned Britain against taking action that could jeopardize the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. Mr Biden, the creator of much of his Irish heritage, raised it in his first call with Ms Truss after she became prime minister.
The two leaders discussed “the importance of reaching a negotiated agreement with the European Union on the Northern Ireland Protocol,” the White House said in a statement of the talks. In a report on the same phone call, Downing Street explicitly made no mention of the settlement of the dispute with Brussels.
The problem, Mr. Rahman said, is that the gap between the UK and the European Union is so wide that they may not have a settlement. Ms. Truss owes her recent victory in the Tory leadership race in part to the support of hardliners in her party who do not want a deal with Brussels.
“That’s where political reality can get in the way,” he said. “There may simply not be a landing zone, given the goals the government is looking for.”
Simon Fraser, a former top Foreign Office official, said Ms Truss should use her meetings in New York to “calm the mood with the EU and move forward with Macron. Funerals may have created a mechanism for this.”
On Thursday, the new Health Secretary, Thérèse Coffey, will tackle another threat: putting pressure on Britain’s already overstretched National Health Service, which is struggling to cope with the situation. huge backlog of health care from the pandemic.
But the big domestic boost is expected to come on Friday as the new prime minister of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, outlines his plan to revive economic growth and explains how he can finance those its promise to protect consumers and businesses from skyrocketing energy costs while cutting taxes.
Fears that fiscal discipline will be sacrificed have weighed on the pound, which is trading at its lowest level against the dollar since 1985. That risks increasing commodity costs imports, undermining the Bank of England’s containment efforts. inflation as it prepares for a likely rate hike on Thursday.
Some of the details on the government’s agenda are also sure to attract opposition, particularly the plan to lift the limit on bonuses for bankers, which critics see as insensitive. at a time when many Britons were in financial difficulty.
Ending the hydraulic ban, another of Ms. Truss’ pledge, is sure to be controversial even if the government says it will only allow shale gas extraction when local communities agree.
And Mr. Kwarteng’s decision to remove a highly respected senior civil servant at the Treasury Department, Tom Scholar, also prompted some skeptics to worry that the new government might not want to heed the advice.
On Tuesday, Ms Truss defended her economic plans, telling the BBC she was prepared to make “difficult” decisions, such as raising the ceiling on bonuses for bankers, to boost economic growth. economic. She added that the plan to reduce energy bills would cut inflation.
Despite the disruption, the solemn events of the past 10 days have allowed Ms. Truss to introduce herself to the public in a non-partisan way, meet more foreign leaders and give her team the opportunity to complete improve some of the leading policies.
Jill Rutter, a former civil servant and senior fellow at the Institute of Government, a research group based in London, said: “They will have a little more time to fill in the details and work things out. “The question is whether they can use that time when they’re not forced into TV studios.”
Now, Ms Rutter said, “The initial verdict on her prime ministership will be made in the next few days.”
