Rishi Sunak entered Downing Street promising to calm the market, stop the scandals and restore trust and integrity to British politics.
Although voters think he is leading the country better than his two predecessors, Sunak's first 100 days as prime minister have been marked by turbulence that could hurt the conservatives' chances in next year's elections, Radio Free Europe (RSE) reports, world media write.
Appointed Conservative leader after his predecessor Liz Truss' plan for big tax cuts sparked panic, Sunak has managed to calm financial markets and stave off an economic crash in the past three months. However, the problems in Great Britain are not abating, writes the Associated Press.
When he took over as prime minister in October, the 42-year-old Sunak promised to tame inflation, boost economic growth, relieve pressure on an overburdened health system and "bring integrity back to politics" after scandals under former prime minister Boris Johnson.
However, AP points out, some analysts believe that it is difficult to see the concrete achievements of the youngest British leader in the last 200 years.
Gross domestic product is still lower than it was before the corona virus pandemic, and the International Monetary Fund has forecast that Great Britain will be the only major economy to record a decline this year.
Sunak blames global forces for this - the disruption of the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Critics say one reason is Brexit, which has caused a sharp drop in trade between Great Britain and the European Union.
Regardless of the causes, the Associated Press points out, Sunak has little economic room for maneuver, especially since Great Britain is affected by the biggest wave of strikes in the last few decades. Nurses, paramedics, teachers, border guards and other workers are demanding pay rises to offset rising living costs and the stress of holding down jobs in an increasingly depleted public sector.
Economists say UK inflation is likely to fall in 2023, allowing Sunak to meet one of its key promises, while making other targets more difficult to achieve.
A significant majority of voters do not believe that Sunak can win the next election, but they think he is a better prime minister than Johnson or Truss, the Times points out, whose poll indicates that Sunak has yet to win over voters who left the Conservative Party in previous years.
Seven out of ten (72 percent) of those polled believe that Sunak will not be prime minister after the next election, while only 27 percent believe that he has done a good job so far, the paper points out and adds that another poll, conducted by the Jugov company, also showed that voters think that Sunak is a better prime minister than Johnson.
While the British prime minister says he is still dealing with the mistakes made by his predecessors and is focusing on restoring the integrity of the government, he is also facing criticism from the Tories, who are lagging behind in most polls, pointing to their possible defeat in next year's election. Bloomberg.
Sunak is under criticism from within, because he did not act decisively regarding the violation of ethics in the party and the cabinet. He was criticized for not immediately firing the chairman of the Conservative Party, Nadim Zahavi, over the tax scandal, but for waiting for the report on the scandal to become public.
Also, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Dominik Rab has been under investigation since November due to allegations that he mistreated subordinates, Bloomberg points out, adding that Sunak himself was fined by the police for not wearing a seat belt while driving.
Sunak hired twice-fired Gavin Williamson into the cabinet, only for Williamson to resign after complaints of harassment and the use of "unethical and immoral" methods.
Sunak also reinstated Suella Braverman as interior minister just six days after she was forced to resign over security code violations.
However, despite scandals, strikes, economic challenges and criticism, Sunak's personal popularity is higher than his party's rating.
However, this would not prevent the Tories from blaming the Prime Minister for a possible poor result in the local elections in May, in order to remove him before the parliamentary elections next year, Bloomberg estimates, adding that there are still those in the Conservative Party who think that Johnson is their best chance. to reach non-traditional Tory voters and win elections.
On the other hand, according to the assessment of the BBC, Sunak has shown in the first 100 days of his prime ministership that he is serious and in "great contrast" with his two predecessors.
Although he "brought down the curtain on what seemed like years of the circus" and showed that he can choose priorities, his government is still struggling with strikes and accusations that, the British public service points out, signal that "the whiff of impropriety has not completely disappeared from the air Westminster".
The problems that Sunak wants to solve are complicated, emphasizes the BBC, concluding that with a possible 500 days, before the next parliamentary elections, Sunak will have to go through more tests, more than in the first 100 days.
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