The external influences section of the A-level business specification is vital for your understanding of the factors that impact business decision making. This article will focus on both the political and economic components and, given what has happened in the UK economy in the last 8 years, it is an area that you should already be familiar with. Liz Truss has just become the shortest reigning prime minister in British history — lasting just 44 days in office before resigning. The impact of her time in office has had perhaps long-lasting effects on businesses and left her political party in disarray.
Before we examine the analysis you should be including in your essay responses, we need to give a brief recap of what has happened politically in the UK in the last decade. David Cameron promised a referendum on the UK membership of the EU if he won the general election in 2015. The referendum the following year resulted in 52% of the population voting for Brexit and Cameron resigned to be replaced by Theresa May who promised ‘Brexit means Brexit’ but failed to get much support from her party. She called an early general election, which she managed to win narrowly, but without a convincing overall Brexit deal put forward she stepped down. Boris Johnson then took over as leader with a promise to ‘get Brexit done’. He also called a general election, which he won, but when the UK left the EU with many of the issues unresolved and significant negative impacts on UK economic performance — along with a series of personal scandals — Johnson was replaced by Liz Truss in 2022 who vowed to ‘grow the economy’. Shortly after taking office the newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, delivered one of the most ambitious and bold mini-budgets that had huge negative economic impacts.
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe
