By September 5, when Johnson will formally resign, the Conservative Party is anticipated to choose between Rishi Sunak and Liza Truss as the new party leader.
Two of the remaining contenders for the position of future British prime minister, Liz Truss, secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth, and development affairs, and former chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, have both previously indicated support for crypto.
Sunak and Truss are vying to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson as the Conservative Party’s and the nation’s leader, and their stances on digital assets are likely to have an impact on financial policy. As part of an initiative to turn the United Kingdom into a major centre for the cryptocurrency industry, Sunak asked the Royal Mint to produce a nonfungible token while Johnson was in office.
Sunak, a former member of Parliament and chancellor from 2020 until his resignation in July, earlier said that the U.K. government will promote financial technology, including stablecoins and central bank digital currencies, in order to stay up with innovation. Additionally, he is the driving force behind a number of planned financial sector changes that encourage the use of stablecoins and cryptocurrencies.
In an effort to encourage the U.K. to adopt cryptocurrency, Truss, who has served as the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs since 2021 and the Minister for Women and Equalities since 2019, under three prime ministers, called for an anti-regulatory approach to the industry in 2018. The MP established a digital trade network in 2020 while serving as Secretary of State for International Trade. Among its initiatives was the support of fintech companies that “enable[d] digitalisation and resilience in important export markets.”
In spite of Johnson’s anticipated resignation, policy choices have gone forward in the UK. On July 20, Nadhim Zahawi, the new chancellor of the Exchequer who took over for Sunak, proposed the Financial Services and Markets Bill, which included a stablecoin regulatory framework.
The House of Commons Treasury Committee also launched an examination into the usage of cryptocurrency in the UK, inviting comments from citizens of that nation.
By September 5, when Johnson will formally resign, the Conservative Party is anticipated to choose between Sunak and Truss as their next leader. The televised discussion between the two contenders on Tuesday was halted when moderator Kate McCann passed out live on television.
