The Conservative Party of the United Kingdom is headed back to the polls as Liz Truss, the most recent prime minister, resigned from her position on Oct. 10. She spent just 45 days in office, the shortest officeholder in history. Elected with the promise of tax cuts to the middle class, which she failed to deliver and made it worse by increasing government spending.

Amid these events, Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the formal opposition Labour party, has made his opinion known that another general election should be called. Starmer, in an interview with BBC News, asserts, “This is not just a soap opera at the top of the Tory [Conservative] party – it’s doing huge damage to the reputation of our country…We need a general election so the public can have their say on this utter chaos.”

As a result of Mrs. Truss’ resignation, big figures from within the Conservative party stepped up to run for the position of Prime Minister and control of the government. Three months ago, Boris Johnson put his name in the race, but backed out citing a lack of unity in the party. Penny Mourdant, the leader of the House of Commons (the lower house of parliament), also ran, but dropped out of the race because she could not win over enough members of Parliament to force a vote. As such, Rishi Sunak, becomes the new Prime Minister by default, after losing to Truss just 45 days ago, back in early September. 

Shane Rogers, Political Sciences instructor at Lake Land College (LLC), had a few thoughts about the situation. He stated,“It’s a parliamentary system, a democracy…But as the Prime Minister is the executive over there, the president is the executive here. They have a House of Lords, we have the Senate as the upper chamber. They have the House of Commons, we have the House of Representatives as the lower chamber.”

According to Rogers, Mr. Sunak has a background primarily in economics. He also stated that, “He’s been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 2015, I believe. He has always been with the Conservative Party. He did vote for Brexit in 2016 and was appointed to Theresa May’s cabinet…He’s been the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which is more or less the treasury, and he’s got a background and connection with the United States. He was a Fullbright Scholar over here and went to Stanford and got an MBA. I wish him luck in his new position. It’s a big job. There’s people who strive all their lives and political careers to become Prime Minister, but they certainly wouldn’t want it at this time. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

The next general election must be called at any time between now and January 2025. The time between general elections may not exceed a period of 5 years, according to the “Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act of 2022”, which received Royal Assent by Her Majesty the Queen on March 24th, just 7 months before her passing. If the government that appointed him doesn’t like how Mr. Sunak is running the government, they can remove him at any time. It will be interesting to see how Mr. Sunak will adapt to his newly appointed position in the Prime Ministerial chair.