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President congratulates Liz Truss

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President Nicos Anastasiades has congratulated the new UK Prime Minister Liz Truss and wants to work with her to enhance further and deepen the longstanding partnership.

“Cyprus and the UK share historical ties and a strong bilateral relationship.

“I look forward to working with you to enhance further and deepen it,” tweeted Anastasiades.

He added: “The UK’s consistent commitment as a guarantor power and P5 member of the UNSC to a settlement that reunifies Cyprus within the agreed UN parameters of a bizonal, bicommunal federation, with political equality as defined in UNSC resolutions is always valued.”

Liz Truss took over as Britain’s prime minister on Tuesday, vowing immediate action to tackle one of the most daunting challenges for an incoming leader in post-War history led by soaring energy bills, looming recession, and industrial strife.

Truss, the fourth Conservative prime minister in six years and successor to Boris Johnson, who was forced out over multiple scandals, acknowledged the severe global headwinds from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Truss appointed close allies to top jobs, such as Kwasi Kwarteng as finance minister, Therese Coffey as deputy prime minister and health minister, and James Cleverly as foreign minister. It was the first time a white man would not hold one of Britain’s four most important ministerial positions.

Britain, under Conservative rule since 2010, has stumbled from crisis to crisis in recent years, and there is now the prospect of a long energy emergency that could drain the savings of households and threaten the futures of businesses still weighed down by COVID-era loans.

Household energy bills are due to jump by 80% in October, but a source familiar with the situation has told Reuters that Truss may freeze bills in a plan that could cost £100 bln, surpassing the COVID-19 furlough scheme.

The scale of the package, plus the fact the energy crisis could run for a couple of years, has spooked investors.

The pound has fared worse against the US dollar than most other major currencies recently.

In August, sterling shed 4% against the greenback, marking the worst month for 20-year British government bonds since around 1978, according to records from Refinitiv and the Bank of England.

Britain’s public finances also remain weighed down by the government’s huge coronavirus spending spree.

Public debt as a share of economic output is not far off 100%, up from about 80% before the pandemic.

Having held a place in the cabinet for eight years, she defeated former finance minister Rishi Sunak in a vote of Conservative Party members by a tighter margin than expected, despite more of the party’s lawmakers initially backing him.