Rishi Sunak becomes prime minister: Greater Manchester MPs react as he is made new Conservative leader
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Rishi Sunak has become the UK’s new Prime Minister after the second Tory leadership race in less than three months.
In Greater Manchester, the Conservative party hold eight of the region’s 27 seats, and a couple of those MPs took to Twitter to congratulate the new PM.
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Hide AdJames Daly, MP for Bury North, tweeted his congratulations and a clip of an interview he gave to GB News, where he says that he thinks Rishi Sunak will be a “great” Prime Minister and that “everything will be ok.”
Chris Clarkson, MP for Heywood and Middleton, also congratulated the new PM on Twitter, adding : “A big job ahead, but a man more than equal to the task. Let’s unite and deliver for Britain.”
The Labour Party MPs in Greater Manchester, however, had more to say on the matter. They are all urging a general election.
In one tweet, Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labour party and MP for Ashton-Under-Lyne, said: “The Tories have crowned Rishi Sunak without him saying a word about what he would do as PM. He has no mandate, no answers and no ideas. Nobody voted for this.
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Hide Ad“The public deserve their say on Britain’s future through a General Election. It’s time for a fresh start with Labour.”
Yasmin Qureshi, MP for Bolton South East, called this latest Tory leadership race “shameful anti-democratic exercise.”
Labour MP for Manchester Central Lucy Powell was quick to criticise Sunak’s time as Chancellor.
She said: “Let’s not forget Rishi Sunak had to be dragged kicking to parliament earlier this year to deal with rising costs of energy.
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Hide Ad“He stood against a windfall tax, refusing to call it such, and leaving so many loopholes it wasn’t much of a tax. He’s as out of touch as the last Tory PM.”
Rochdale MP Tony Lloyd was also critical of the new PM’s time as Chancellor in a statement published on his website earlier today.
He said: “As Chancellor, Mr Sunak failed to grow the economy, failed to get to grips with inflation and failed to help families in Rochdale and across the country with the cost-of-living crisis.
“He was the Chancellor who made sure ‘levelling up’ was just another empty Tory slogan, and now he’s a Prime Minister with no mandate and frankly, no idea what the people of Rochdale need.
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Hide Ad“The reality is that this country needs a general election because the public should be in charge, and we will put the case forward for a fresh start with Labour.”
Labour MPs were also widely sharing a video posted to the Labour Party account which shows Rishi Sunak during the last Tory leadership race telling Conservative party members in Tunbridge Wells that he had taken money away from “deprived urban areas.”
Barbara Keeley, MP for Worsley and Eccles South, was among those who shared the video with the short tweet of “General Election Now.”