Aurelia Butler

TOKYO (Reuters) – For months, Kazumi Sato, a nutritionist at a middle school in eastern Tokyo, has received notices about hikes in ingredient prices.Mindful of the economic hardships many of the students’ families face, local authorities are loath to pass the burden of pricier school lunches on to them. For Sato, that has meant constantly adjusting lunch recipes so that Senju Aoba Junior High School’s kitchen can stay within budget.”I try to include seasonal fruits once or twice a month, but it’s difficult to do it frequently,” she told Reuters at the school.Sato says she substitutes fresh fruit, which is expensive in Japan, with jelly or a sliver of hand-made cake. She’s taken to using lots of bean sprouts as a cheap alternative wherever possible, but worries she’ll run out of ideas if prices keep rising.”I don’t want to disappoint the children with what they might feel is a sad meal,” she said.Inflation is becoming an increasingly political issue in Japan, a country unaccustomed to steep price rises, and many households are feeling the squeeze.For schools, soaring food prices affect an important source of sustenance for lower income Japanese families.These days, Sato says, an 18-litre (4.8-gallon) can of cooking oil costs 1,750 yen ($12.85) more than it did a year ago, while the price of onions has doubled. The government imposes strict nutritional requirements for public schools, so there’s only so much nutritionists can do before schools are forced to raise prices on families.Authorities want to avoid that, knowing poorer families will skimp on nutritious meals at home. Some children return to school from summer break visibly skinnier, educators and public officials say.In Tokyo’s Adachi ward, lunches at public middle schools cost 334 yen, of which 303 yen is covered by families.As part of relief measures, the national government said in April it would provide funds to help schools absorb some of the rising costs for meals. Adachi ward plans to use those, and its own extra budget, to avoid passing the burden on to families.But Sato worries about the prospect of further energy and food price hikes, especially towards the end of the school year when the allocated funds start to run out.”The rainy season ended earlier this year, so there may be a big impact on vegetables,” she said. “I’m worried about what prices will be like in the fall and beyond.”($1 = 136.1500 yen) More

WARSAW (Reuters) – Hopes that the Polish central bank’s monetary policy tightening cycle may be nearing its end could be shattered by government policies aiming to support domestic demand and ease the pain of inflation in a pre-election year, economists say.The largest economy in the European Union’s eastern region has raised its main interest rate by a cumulative 590 basis points since the cycle began in October, putting pressure on mortgage holders and prompting the government to help borrowers.In June, central bank governor Adam Glapinski said the central bank was “gradually approaching the end” of its rate hike cycle, as he flagged threats to economic growth from the Ukraine war.But government action to deliver a five-percentage-point cut in the basic income tax rate that will boost many people’s July pay packets, combined with other measures such as payment holidays for mortgage holders, could mean interest rates will peak later and also higher than previously expected, analysts said. The central bank is already expected to raise the cost of credit by 75 basis points to 6.75% when its policymakers meet on Thursday, based on a Reuters poll.Rates have been climbing to dampen inflation in Poland, which is at its highest level in a quarter of a century. Inflation plus the rise in interest rates to their highest level since 2008, has piled pressure on household budgets. For 40-year-old insurance worker Anna Lewandowska, rising instalments on her variable-rate mortgage and soaring prices mean she is now forced to go for cheaper food and clothes.Nevertheless, she says the government’s measures have complicated the central bank’s task to rein in inflation.”Raising interest rates with this tax policy is pointless… the Monetary Policy Council is putting the fire out with water but our government is adding oil to the fire,” she said, as she took a cigarette break with a colleague in Warsaw.Many economists share her view of the situation.”Fiscal easing this year we estimate at over three percentage points of GDP, and the problem is it is working in the opposite direction to the monetary tightening,” said Rafal Benecki, chief economist at ING in Poland.”The central bank may be forced to keep raising rates even with some signs of slowdown taking place in the second half of the year.”Analysts at Citi Handlowy say that payment holidays, which will allow mortgage holders to skip payments in eight months over a two-year period, will effectively cancel out the central bank’s last two rate hikes, meaning that further tightening will be needed.PROTECTING GROWTHPoland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party has won two consecutive parliamentary elections on programmes that raised the spending power of many voters through generous social benefits and minimum wage increases.The party says its current policies aim to protect families and maintain momentum in the economy.”We follow the path of social sensitivity and limiting the impact of inflation on Poles’ wallets,” Deputy Finance Minister Artur Sobon told private broadcaster TVN24 on Tuesday.In a separate interview with public radio the same day, Sobon said that the alternative would be recession and rising unemployment.Government policies have helped to support consumer demand, the key driver of economic growth in Poland, and it has remained strong despite inflation hitting an annual 15.6% in June. The government also points to double-digit wage growth as proof that it is maintaining voters’ purchasing power. But some economists say a wage-price spiral is unfolding. The government’s critics also say PiS is merely postponing the pain until after elections scheduled for 2023, and taking a similar approach to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who dished out 1.8 trillion forints ($4.52 billion) in tax cuts, pension and wage increases to support his election campaign this year. Orban’s government is now struggling to rein in a high budget deficit, while the central bank has upped its rate hikes as it tries to anchor rising inflation expectations.($1 = 398.1400 forints) More

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s new finance minister Nadhim Zahawi pledged on Wednesday to rebuild and grow the struggling economy and said he would look at all options to do that, including possible tax cuts. Zahawi, who moved from the education ministry to the Treasury on Tuesday after the resignation of Rishi Sunak in protest against embattled Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said “nothing is off the table”.But he also faced questions in his first media interviews in the job about whether he would even have a chance to steer the economy out of its looming slowdown, given Johnson’s weakened grip on power.Among other government ministers to abandon their posts on Wednesday were health minister Sajid Javid and junior finance minister John Glen, who was responsible for the City of London.Britain’s economy has lost momentum as inflation heads for double-digits and it is forecast to be weaker than other big industrialised economies next year.Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill said he did not expect any economic growth over the next year or so, as households faced the highest inflation in 40 years.As well as the challenge of soaring energy and food costs, Britain is also struggling to adjust to life after Brexit.TAX CUTS TO COME?Zahawi, widely credited in the Conservative Party for successfully overseeing Britain’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, said 2023 was shaping up to be “really hard” and he would focus on the cost-of-living squeeze facing households.Zahawi hinted at moves to ease taxes on individuals and a rethink of Sunak’s plan to raise taxes on businesses next year.”Nothing’s off the table. I will look at everything. When boards invest, companies invest, they invest for the long term and they do compare corporation tax rates,” he told Times Radio.Many Conservative lawmakers have called for tax cuts, and Sunak had ordered the finance ministry to look at options that would boost lacklustre business investment ahead of an autumn budget statement.Government forecasters predicted in March that public borrowing would fall to 1.9% of GDP next year – which would leave some room for tax cuts – but since then, the growth and inflation outlooks have worsened.Zahawi said his priority was to fight inflation – something that could be aggravated by tax cuts – and he also stressed the need to fix the public finances after his predecessor spent around 400 billion pounds ($479 billion) to cushion the economic blow dealt by the coronavirus pandemic.”We have just come out of the equivalent of a world war. We have to rebuild the economy and return to growth,” he said, adding the government would have to be careful about increases in public-sector pay, which could drive inflation higher. “The important thing is to get inflation under control, be fiscally responsible,” he told Sky News. Zahawi was appointed after Sunak quit the job in protest at Johnson’s “standards” and citing differences over economic policy with the prime minister.The main opposition Labour Party said the chaos at the top of British politics was adding to the economy’s problems. “The pound fell again yesterday. The pound is weak because the government is weak. And a weak pound means the costs of energy, the cost of petrol and diesel go up and up and up,” said Rachel Reeves, Labour’s would-be finance minister. ($1 = 0.8356 pounds)(Additional teporting by William James, Farouq Suleiman and David Milliken; writing by William Schomberg and David Milliken, editing by Elizabeth Piper, Angus MacSwan and Bernadette Baum) More

LONDON (Reuters) -Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill warned on Wednesday that Britain’s economy would slow to a crawl over the next 12 months and repeated his preference for a “steady-handed” approach to raising interest rates.With inflation heading towards double digits and growth in the economy fading fast, Pill said the BoE was trying to chart a narrow path between these two forces and get consumer price growth back to its 2% target.International institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and OECD, say Britain is more susceptible to recession and persistently high inflation than other Western countries grappling with global energy and commodity market shocks.Political strife – with Prime Minister Boris Johnson reeling from the resignation of his health and finance ministers on Tuesday – has added to the sense of turmoil in Britain.”We’re not expecting really to see any growth in the economy over the next year or so,” Pill told the audience after a speech at a conference hosted by King’s College London’s Qatar Centre for Global Banking & Finance.Last month the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee said it was ready to “if necessary act forcefully” to tackle inflation that is likely to exceed 11% later this year.Pill said the line reflected his own willingness to step up the pace of tightening policy if data supported such moves, adding that his decision in August would depend on the economic news.But for now, he stuck with his preferred “steady-handed” approach and warned that big moves in the central bank’s benchmark rate could be counterproductive.”One-off bold moves can … be disturbing in terms of their impact on financial markets,” Pill said, answering audience questions.The BoE should avoid gaining a reputation for “jerking around Bank Rate” in response to short-term economic news, Pill added, as investors would view this as noise that would disrupt the transmission of monetary policy.The BoE has raised interest rates five times since December, raising rates to 1.25% from 0.1%. The central bank has not raised interest rates by 0.5 percentage points in a single move since it gained operational independence in 1997, but financial markets see a 60% chance of such a move at the BoE’s next meeting in August.Faster tightening is expected despite the fact that growth is losing momentum as the highest inflation in 40 years erodes households’ purchasing power.Pill echoed comments from Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe earlier on Wednesday that the BoE would do whatever it would take to prevent inflation becoming embedded, and that a slowing economy would take some of the heat off price pressures.”Risks to the economic outlook are two-sided,” Pill said. “The current squeeze on real income … threatens to create slack and downside risks to inflation further out.”Unlike the United States – where the Federal Reserve has signalled a rapid tightening path – Britain imported much more of its energy, leading to a drop in living standards when energy prices rose, Pill added. More

What should central banks do about climate change? It’s one of the hottest economic debates of our time. For a while, the drive for policymakers to take a more active approach seemed to be unstoppable, pushed along by initiatives like the Network for Greening the Financial System, formed in Paris in 2017.But now, with inflation soaring, central banks face criticism that they’ve been getting distracted from their core task of maintaining stable prices. A recent salvo came from former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers.“I always told my kids that how many extracurricular activities they could do . . . depended upon how they were doing in their core central courses,” Summers told an audience at the London School of Economics. A similar logic could be applied to today’s central banks, he said. “Maybe you don’t get to take on global climate change when you’re having double-digit inflation rates.”So it’s an interesting moment, as we discuss below, for the European Central Bank to launch a mission to help decarbonise the continent’s bond market. Is it going too far, or not far enough? Let us know your thoughts at [email protected]. (Simon Mundy)ECB’s new climate push: You can’t please all the people . . . On a cloudy Frankfurt morning in March last year, two paragliders drifted on to the roof of the European Central Bank’s glass-fronted headquarters and unfurled a large banner that read: “Stop funding climate killers!”The Greenpeace stunt was aimed at the ECB’s programme to stimulate the European economy by buying corporate bonds. The scheme has come under heavy fire from green-minded critics who complained that a huge chunk of its investment has gone to bonds issued by some of the continent’s biggest carbon emitters.Now the ECB is trying to change the narrative. On Monday, it promised to “gradually decarbonise” its corporate bond holdings and “tilt these holdings towards issuers with better climate performance”.The shift comes as the ECB stops expanding its bond portfolio, part of its effort to tighten monetary policy amid soaring inflation. So the new, greener strategy will apply only to its purchases using the proceeds of the bonds it already holds as they mature. That means about €30bn a year, out of a total portfolio of €386bn.There’s still plenty of uncertainty around the new policy, which will apply from October. The ECB has given only vague details of how companies’ climate performance will be measured. And the shift on bond purchases is just one part of its new stance. It will soon impose limits on the quantity of corporate bonds issued by highly emitting companies that it will accept as collateral for credit. The bonds of companies with insufficient climate disclosures won’t be accepted at all.ECB president Christine Lagarde promised there would be more climate-friendly steps to come, sparking speculation that the central bank may eventually start selling down its carbon-intensive holdings, or exclude certain sectors from its bond-buying strategy altogether.What does this mean for Europe’s bond market — and its climate strategy? Ulf Erlandsson and Jo Richardson of the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute have been working on these questions for some time. They characterised this as a “Don’t fight the Fed” moment: the ECB has made clear that it intends to oversee a tightening of the funding environment for high emitters, a signal that only foolhardy investors would take lightly. When the ECB eventually starts shrinking its corporate bond holdings, Richardson predicted, “these are the bonds that will be sold first”.While the full effects of the ECB’s gradualist approach will take years to be felt, AFII research suggests that some carbon-intensive companies may feel more of a squeeze than others as they look to refinance debt falling due in the next few years. The ECB holds, on average, well over a quarter of each corporate bond issuance that features in its portfolio. These include a €20bn issuance from German power company Eon, with 31 per cent of that maturing in 2024 or earlier. For French oil company Total, those numbers are €16.3bn and 24 per cent.Erlandsson says the ECB’s bond purchases have meant significant financial support for heavy fossil fuel producers and users. “When the ECB has been buying bonds from Glencore, they’ve been partially funding Glencore’s methane-leaking coal mines in Australia,” he said. “When they’ve been buying Total bonds, they are implicitly supporting Total’s build out of the eastern African oil pipeline.”The ECB previously pursued a “market-neutral” approach to its corporate bond portfolio, meaning that it tried to make its holding of each asset proportionate to that security’s weighting in the overall bond market. But as an important paper earlier this year pointed out, companies in industries such as mining and energy are far more active issuers in the European bond market than peers in sectors such as technology or professional services. The authors — who include an ECB economist — noted that this means that carbon-intensive industries are hugely over-represented in the ECB’s bond holdings, relative to their share of European economic activity.A hotly debated move Still, the ECB’s intention to decarbonise its portfolio, which it’s been talking about since last year, has sparked plenty of pushback. In February, conservative members of the European parliament criticised the plan as a “distraction” from the ECB’s core task of managing inflation, and accused it of trying to expand its mandate “through the back door”.That chimes with the position of Republican lawmakers who blocked the appointment of Sarah Bloom Raskin to the Federal Reserve board, after the former deputy Treasury secretary said the US central bank should prioritise tackling climate change risks.One central bank that has already been moving in this area is the Bank of England, whose former governor Mark Carney played a prominent role in driving climate change up the central banking agenda. Last November it announced that companies would need to meet climate-related criteria to be included in its asset purchase scheme, and that its purchases would be “tilted” towards the stronger performers on that front.But while central banks are right to take climate risks seriously, there are grounds to be nervous about the ECB’s new statement, said Huw van Steenis, a former senior adviser to Carney at the BoE. He voiced concern about the change to the collateral framework, which he said was “there to provide liquidity to the financial system day in, day out, and in particular in emergencies. One tinkers with it only with extreme caution”.Van Steenis was uneasy, too, with the new bond-buying stance that’s seemingly aimed at raising the cost of capital for some borrowers relative to others. “Actively seeking to skew the cost of capital — that’s not really the central bank’s job,” he said.The ECB itself said that this move is covered by the second part of its dual mandate, which calls on it to support the European Union’s economic policy — which now has the energy transition at its core.Others said it should be more aggressive in its climate action. Stanislas Jourdan, head of the pressure group Positive Money Europe, argued that imported fossil fuels are a long-term source of inflationary risks — and that promoting the energy transition should therefore be considered part of the ECB’s primary mandate to manage inflation.For critics like Jourdan, this is just a small step in the right direction from the ECB. “We’re talking peanuts,” he said, referring to the roughly €30bn of asset purchases that will be affected by the new policy. “What they did here is pretty modest.” (Simon Mundy)Additional reporting by Hannah WendlandJapan flips the script on loans for coal financing The Japanese government said late last month that it will stop providing yen-denominated loans to build two coal-fired power plants in Asia: one in Indonesia and the other in Bangladesh. The policy reversal came in response to the growing global criticism of Japan’s role as a key coal power project exporter.With the loss of funding, neither project now looks likely to go ahead. Bangladesh will eschew its plans for a coal-based plan in favour of a liquefied natural gas plant for its Matarbari 2 project. Indonesia’s Indramayu project, which had already been placed on hold, may be halted entirely to meet the country’s net zero target. Japan’s foreign ministry announced the move just ahead of last month’s meeting of G7 nations, which agreed last year to stop international financing support on new coal projects. The world’s third-largest economy originally resisted the agreement and insisted it would exclude ongoing projects, including the Indramayu and Matarbari 2 plants.Public finance from Japan, China and South Korea accounted for more than 95 per cent of the total foreign financing for coal-fired power plants since 2013, according to the World Resources Institute. Last year, China and South Korea also pledged to stop supporting coal-fired projects overseas.Japan’s policy shift has been widely welcomed by international ESG investors and local environmental activists. But it also raised a new concern. “This is an important win for global Paris alignment — but only if coal is not replaced one-for-one by LNG [liquefied natural gas] whose climate benefits are consistently overplayed,” said Eric Christian Pedersen, head of responsible investments at Nordea Asset Management. The right alternative is renewables — not LNG — because methane leakage in the supply chain can mean gas power ends up having the same atmospheric warming effect as coal, Pedersen added.Japan’s decision came as the G7 itself decided to accommodate LNG as a “necessary response” to the current energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. Climate activists have since accused the G7 of “backsliding” on its pledge to stop funding overseas fossil fuel projects by the end of this year, our colleague Leslie Hook reported. The final communiqué from the June summit said that “publicly-supported investment in the gas sector can be appropriate as a temporary response” in some exceptional circumstances. (Tamami Shimizuishi, Nikkei)Smart readUS prison operator CoreCivic faces scrutiny over its alleged profiteering from forced labour by immigrant detainees, writes Lee Fang of The Intercept. But it also features in multiple environmental, social and governance funds run by companies like BlackRock, DWS and State Street. More

Investing.com — The Federal Reserve releases the minutes of its last meeting, while New York Fed President John Williams will provide more up-to-date commentary on the state of the inflation debate. Boris Johnson’s time as U.K. Prime Minister appears to be running out after yet another scandal, while the euro plumbs a new 20-year low on the back of weak German manufacturing orders. Voyager Digital files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, despite getting a $200 million lifeline from FTX owner Sam Bankman-Fried only two weeks ago, and oil stabilizes below $100 a barrel after its worst day in two years. Uber and DoorDash fall in premarket on the news that Amazon is to take a stake in Grubhub. Here’s what you need to know in financial markets on Wednesday, 6th July.1. Fed minutes, ISM non-manufacturing PMI dueThe Federal Reserve will publish the minutes of its last policy meeting, where it announced the largest increase in interest rates in nearly 30 years after telling markets that it planned a more moderate outcome.The minutes, while backward-looking, will cast some light on whether any policymakers are already getting cold feet about a policy tightening cycle which looks more and more likely to tip the economy into recession. More up-to-date thinking will also be on offer when New York Fed President John Williams speaks at 9 AM ET.The data calendar also cranks up again after the long weekend, with weekly mortgage applications due at 7 AM ET and ISM’s non-manufacturing survey and the Labor Department’s Job Openings survey at 10 AM.2. Crypto platform Voyager files for Chapter 11Crypto investment platform Voyager Digital filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, after suffering catastrophic losses of over $650 million to the collapsed hedge fund 3 Arrows Capital.Voyager, whose home page still advertises token-based annual returns of over 12% “with no lockups,” had halted customer withdrawals less than two weeks ago.Voyager said it has over $110 million of its own cash and another $350 million in reserves held for clients. It also claims the equivalent of over $1.3 billion in crypto assets on its platform.How much of this can be salvaged remains unclear. However, one major creditor that stands to lose money is Alameda Research, the hedge fund of FTX owner Sam Bankman-Fried. Voyager had already drawn down $75 million of the $200 million credit facility it agreed with Alameda in June.The news didn’t stop a broad bounce in crypto assets, with Bitcoin gaining 2.1% to trade above $20,000 again and Ethereum gaining 1.3%. Elsewhere, there were tentative signs of improvement in the liquidity situation as Hong Kong-based AEX crypto platform relaxed its restrictions on more token withdrawals.3. Stocks set to open flat; Amazon threatens delivery dominance of Uber, DoorDashU.S. stocks are set to open flat later, showing exaggerated caution ahead of the day’s data and the earnings season that starts next week.By 6:15 AM ET, Dow Jones futures, S&P 500 futures, and Nasdaq 100 futures were all down by less than 0.1%, having had mixed fortunes on their first day after the July 4 weekend.Stocks likely to be in focus later include food delivery apps after Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) agreed to buy a 2% stake in Grubhub from Just Eat Takeaway (AS:TKWY), with an option to raise its stake to 15%. The prospect of having to compete with the deep-pocketed e-commerce giant hit Uber (NYSE:UBER) and DoorDash (NYSE:DASH) in premarket, with Uber stock falling 1.8% and DoorDash falling 5.2%.Also likely to be in focus will be oil and gas names after the 10% drop in crude prices in response to recession fears on Tuesday.4. Johnson left dangling by key resignationsBoris Johnson’s time as U.K. Prime Minister appears to be running out.Two senior ministers – Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid – both resigned on Tuesday in exasperation at the latest episode to have exposed Johnson’s elastic relationship with truth, after the PM was forced to admit that he did in fact know about allegations of sexual impropriety by a man whom he nonetheless promoted to Deputy Chief Whip.Sterling edged lower after plummeting to a new two-year low against the dollar on Tuesday as events unfolded. Critically for markets, Sunak’s replacement as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nadhim Zahawi, indicated on BBC Radio Wednesday morning that he was more open than Sunak to the idea of cutting taxes, even at the risk of running higher budget deficits.By 5:55 AM ET, GBP/USD was down 0.1% at $1.1944 and GBP/EUR was up 0.3% at $1.1679. The euro in turn hit a fresh 20-year low after May’s German manufacturing orders and Eurozone retail sales both pointed to ongoing weakness in the Eurozone.5. Oil stabilizes after China, recession fears drive selloffCrude oil prices stabilized below $100 a barrel after Tuesday’s downward lurch, its biggest one-day selloff in over two years.By 6:25 AM ET, U.S. crude futures were up 0.2% at $99.74 a barrel, while Brent crude was up 0.9% at $103.70 a barrel.Prices had fallen heavily in response to growing fears of a recession across much of the world. Such fears are being stoked in turn by a sustained and painful rise in gas and electricity prices, especially in Europe, which now has to deal with lower expected nuclear output as well as a cut in Russian gas supplies. More

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was clinging to power on Wednesday, gravely wounded by the resignation of ministers who said he was not fit to govern and with a growing number of lawmakers calling for him to go.Below is a summary of some of those who could be in the frame to replace him should he resign or be ousted:LIZ TRUSS The foreign secretary is the darling of the ruling Conservative Party’s grassroots and has regularly topped polls of party members carried out by the website Conservative Home.Truss has a carefully cultivated public image and was photographed in a tank last year, evoking a famous 1986 image of Britain’s first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, who was also captured in such a pose.The 46-year-old spent the first two years of Johnson’s premiership as international trade secretary, championing Brexit, and last year was appointed as Britain’s lead negotiator with the European Union.Truss said on Monday Johnson has her “100% backing” and she urged colleagues to support him.JEREMY HUNTThe former foreign secretary, 55, finished second to Johnson in the 2019 leadership contest. He would offer a more serious and less controversial style of leadership after the turmoil of Johnson’s premiership.Over the last two years, Hunt has used his experience as a former health secretary to chair the health select committee and has not been tarnished by having served in the current government.Earlier this year, he said his ambition to become prime minister “hasn’t completely vanished”. Hunt said he would vote to oust Johnson in a confidence vote last month which Johnson narrowly won.BEN WALLACEDefence minister Ben Wallace, 52, has risen in recent months to be the most popular member of the government with Conservative Party members, according to Conservative Home, thanks to his handling of the Ukraine crisis.A former soldier himself, he served in Northern Ireland, Germany, Cyprus and Central America, and was mentioned in dispatches in 1992.He began his political career as a member of Scotland’s devolved assembly in May 1999, before being first elected to the Westminster parliament in 2005.He was security minister from 2016 until taking on his current role three years later, winning plaudits for his department’s role in the evacuation of British nationals and allies from Afghanistan last year, and the sending of weapons to Kyiv during the recent war in Ukraine.RISHI SUNAKSunak, who resigned as finance minister on Tuesday saying “the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously”, was until last year the favourite to succeed Johnson. He was praised for a rescue package for the economy during the coronavirus pandemic, including a jobs retention programme, which prevented mass unemployment, that could cost as much as 410 billion pounds ($514 billion).But Sunak has faced criticism for not giving enough cost-of-living support to households, his wealthy wife’s non-domiciled tax status and a fine he received, along with Johnson, for breaking COVID-19 lockdown rules.His tax-and-spend budget last year put Britain on course for its biggest tax burden since the 1950s, undermining his claims to favour lower taxes.SAJID JAVIDJavid was the first cabinet minister to resign in protest over accusations that Johnson misled the public over what he knew about sexual harassment allegations against a Conservative lawmaker.A former banker and a champion of free markets, Javid has served in a number of cabinet roles, most recently as health minister. He resigned as Johnson’s finance minister in 2020.The son of Pakistani Muslim immigrant parents, he is an admirer of the late Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.Javid finished fourth in the 2019 leadership contest to replace former Prime Minister Theresa May. NADHIM ZAHAWIThe newly appointed finance minister impressed as vaccines minister when Britain had one of the fastest rollouts of COVID-19 jabs in the world. Zahawi’s personal story as a former refugee from Iraq who came to Britain as a child sets him apart from other Conservative contenders.He went on to co-found polling company YouGov before entering parliament in 2010. His last job was as education secretary. Zahawi said last week that it would be a “privilege” to be prime minister at some stage. PENNY MORDAUNTThe former defence secretary was sacked by Johnson when he became prime minister after she backed his rival Hunt during the last leadership contest.Mordaunt was a passionate supporter of leaving the European Union and made national headlines by taking part in now-defunct reality TV diving show. Currently a junior trade minister, Mordaunt called the lockdown-breaking parties in government “shameful”. She said voters wanted to see “professionalism and competence” from the government.She had previously expressed loyalty to Johnson.($1 = 0.7971 pounds) More