The new prime minister will take office at a time of great uncertainty

The squeeze on living standards isn’t the only urgent issue that the next occupant of No 10 will be expected to address, writes Harriet Williamson

On 5 September, a new prime minister will take office (EPA)

As the long school holidays draw to a close (perception of their length tends to depend on whether you’re a teacher or a parent, or both) and parliament resumes after its summer recess, this autumn feels like a real moment of transition.

On 5 September, a new prime minister will take office. By all accounts, it is likely to be Liz Truss rather than Rishi Sunak in residence at No 10. The next PM will have much to contend with, and most pressing is the cost of living crisis, exacerbated by the 80 per cent increase in energy bills confirmed by Ofgem last week.

Truss has not, at the time of writing, set out a plan for how she will help people to cope with the untenable rise in energy costs. Support for campaigns such as Don’t Pay UK and Enough is Enough – the latter of which is backed by Labour figures including Andy Burnham and Zarah Sultana – is growing as the “zombie government” remains dangerously inert. I wrote about my own fears, which are unfortunately shared by households with varying levels of financial security across the UK.

The squeeze on living standards isn’t the only urgent issue that the new prime minister will be expected to address. There’s also the small matter of the climate emergency and the adverse weather events it causes, the wide-ranging consequences of Brexit, the sewage scandal marring our coasts, the crisis in the NHS, the crisis in policing, falling confidence in law and order, the housing crisis, and the much-touted levelling up plan (which has rather fallen off the agenda lately).

There are also legitimate questions about the way in which Britain’s role might evolve as the conflict in Ukraine continues, particularly when the worst of the strain on household budgets begins to be felt as eye-watering energy costs hit home.

What sort of prime minister will Truss prove to be? As my colleague John Rentoul writes: “This energy crisis is so great that it is hard to see how Truss can avoid being swept away by it. She may not like Gordon Brown economics, but she risks being the Tory Gordon Brown, at the head of a tailender of a government running out of steam.”

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She’s inheriting a bit of a mess from the last lot, but it may not be entirely lost on voters that both Truss and her opponent Sunak were the last lot. They held two of the highest-level cabinet positions – foreign secretary and chancellor – under Boris Johnson.

From an editorial perspective, we are likely to have our work cut out responding to Truss’s success (or lack thereof) in rising to the considerable challenges she faces.

As always, we will strive to bring you the most astute and challenging opinion and analysis as the new prime minister takes office, and beyond.

Yours,

Harriet Williamson

Voices commissioning editor