On Sept. 18, former Prime Minister Liz Truss found herself on the United Kingdom's Twitter agenda for two days with her statements. She admitted, "Our debt levels are close to 100% of gross domestic product (GDP). We have the highest debt interest payments in the developed world."

She also demanded an increase in the pension age. Her statements on the economy reminded people of her "mini-budget" failure and sparked a reaction. The next day people learned that Truss claimed over 23,000 sterling ($28.150) from her post-prime ministerial allowance in just five months after being ousted from No. 10, and this outraged many. But Truss is just one example, and the point is that the Tories can barely go a week without being exposed as having done something wrong.

To understand this, let’s take a glance at some news and incidents from the last couple of months.

In May, a homeless camp was destroyed in Dublin as anti-migrant protests continued. Nurses called for a double-figure pay rise and threatened strikes because they are living in poverty, according to RCN chief Pat Cullen. A West Sussex water plant failure left tens of thousands of homes without supplies. Parents had to fight for food vouchers as disabled children across the U.K. were locked out of the scheme. They seemed to lose the war for now as Disability Rights U.K., a leading organization for disabled people, expressed in July that over 80,000 disabled teenagers are locked out of their own Child Trust Funds.

According to Contact, another organization for disabled children, "a third of eligible disabled children are missing out on their free school meal" in the end. Just in those days, a disturbing fact was admitted by authorities and the chair of Water U.K. apologized for the sewage spill into the rivers. She said, "The public is right to be upset about the current quality of our rivers and beaches."

Individual scandals

On the other hand, individual scandals continued to erupt. Home Secretary Suella Braverman asked civil servants to help her dodge a speeding fine. Later she accepted the fine, but the request left a bad impression for sure. Braverman has been criticized for her harsh policy against migrants, accused of causing Muslim men in the U.K. to be mass-stereotyped as suspected groomers. She was labeled a "racist."

Even singer Dua Lipa felt compelled to speak up about the migrant policy of the government and said the way ministers discuss migrants is "short-sighted and small-minded" after Braverman painted small boat crossings as an "invasion." The home secretary also drew a lot of reaction on social media against her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March because of the premier's terrible reputation for being a cruel persecutor. At that meeting, while Netanyahu sat with his leg on his knee, Braverman posed like she was his maid, which was an embarrassing image for the U.K.

Health service's biggest strike

We saw other examples apart from Braverman. Health Secretary Steve Barclay made a blunder by affronting the doctors thereby calling them "unreasonable" for their demand for a pay rise. On these days he said he would not negotiate on pay with the nurses’ union. Additionally, we learned that nearly 35,000 people a month have been waiting more than a fortnight for cancer hospital appointments since the Conservatives came to power.

The NHS is seen as the second most important problem the U.K. is facing by 86% of the people, and the minister’s behavior isn’t helping the ameliorate it. Another Tory, Minister Lee Rowley, was seen forgetting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s five Conservative pledges on BBC. I'm not even mentioning the sexual misconduct scandals and the civil war between the Tories, or controversial Russian donations to the party.

From train strikes to the North Sea workers strikes, there have been many strikes that still continue intermittently. Even BBC journalists began a 48-hour strike to save local radio in June. One of the groups on strike is teachers. Teacher vacancies have doubled in the past two years, and this increase in the number of teachers leaving the profession is "hugely concerning" for some.

Amid economic problems, food costs more in U.K. stores compared to Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. SNP MPs slammed the government because countries similar to Scotland all have lower poverty than the U.K. British homeowners face the "worst mortgage shock in the World," according to the Telegraph. Even the Tory MP Lucy Allan and senior Tory Jake Berry criticized the governor of the Bank of England and invited him to resign.

Retail also in crisis

The retail industry is also in crisis. Over 17,000 shops closed in 2022 – the worst year for retail in five years. As of March 2023, 14,874 jobs have been cut by struggling retailers. In general, around 8,679 businesses are expected to close in the last three months of this year.

Church of England clergy demanded a pay rise for the first time in history as they struggled with a higher cost of living. The cost-of-living crisis is a factor in the 17% rise in abortions, according to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. U.K. net debt has passed 100% of its GDP for the first time since 1961, Truss pointed out. A study found that nearly 2.5 million households in Britain are at a high risk of financial vulnerability.

And this is just news from essentially a two-month span.

It is a fact that there is a lot of negativity circulating. This doesn't mean Labor is a good alternative. On the contrary, they also have many flaws that are not the subject of this article. However, after many years, the Tories have become quite worn out. Ultimately, if Labor isn't winning the power, the Tories are certainly losing it.