UK’s new premier urged to freeze energy bills

By Muhammad Mussa

LONDON, UK (AA) - The UK’s incoming Prime Minister Liz Truss has been urged by the leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as the mayor of London to immediately freeze rising energy bills and prioritize the cost of living crisis in the first days of her premiership.

Nicola Sturgeon, Mark Drakeford and Michelle O’Neil, the respective first ministers of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, congratulated Truss on her appointment as prime minister on Monday but called on the premier to introduce a package of emergency measures that would provide financial support to many across the UK.

“Congratulations to Liz Truss. Our political differences are deep, but I will seek to build a good working relationship with her as I did with last 3 PMs. She must now freeze energy bills for people & businesses, deliver more cash support, and increase funding for public services,” Sturgeon said on Twitter.

Similarly, Drakeford said: “I'd like to congratulate @trussliz. We now need to work together, with urgency, to tackle the #CostOfLivingCrisis and save millions from hardship this winter. There is no more time to waste - action is needed now.”

Michelle O’Neil, leader of Sinn Fein and the Northern Ireland Executive, called on Truss to respect the Good Friday Agreement by not rewriting the contentious Northern Ireland Protocol in order to appease Unionists.

On Twitter, O’Neil said “we need a serious change of tack from Liz Truss and the British government. The Good Friday agreement must be honoured and assembly election result respected. People voted for real change, and as first minister designate my priority is to restore the executive to deliver change.”

During her leadership campaign, Truss had attacked Sturgeon by describing her as an “attention seeker” for her repeated calls for a second Scottish independence referendum. She extended this attack to Drakeford, whom she described as a “low-energy” Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader.

Nonetheless, opposition leaders have looked beyond Truss’ smears and pledged their cooperation with the new prime minister on matters such as the cost of living crisis if she would also be willing to cooperate with them for the greater good of the country.

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, also called on Truss to prioritize the cost of living crisis in the coming days as she appoints a new Cabinet and creates new policies for the country.

In an op-ed in London’s CityAM newspaper, Khan said “what we desperately need now is a government that is laser-focused on the economy, on investing in our public services and on supporting households through this difficult period, rather than one that is intent on stoking crude culture wars or playing our cities, towns and regions off against each other for political gain,”

“In the short term, the new prime minister must take whatever steps necessary to ease the pressures on household budgets to ensure people can keep their heads above water,” Khan added.

On Monday Truss was appointed by the Conservative Party membership as the UK’s third female prime minister, a status Queen Elizabeth is due to make official.