Former British finance minister Rishi Sunak has announced on the eve of the nominations closing that he will run in the inner Conservative Party to succeed Liz Truss as prime minister, at a time when Boris Johnson remains undecided if he will participate in a bid to return to No. 10 Downing Street.
Sunak, 42, was the first to reach the minimum endorsement threshold of 100 Conservative MPs, the threshold necessary to continue in the race. “The UK is a great country, but we are facing a deep economic crisis,” the former banker, who held the portfolio from 2019 until last July, wrote on Twitter.
“That’s why I’m running to be the next Conservative Party leader and prime minister. I want to straighten out our economy, unite our party and take action for our country,” added Sunak, who lost the race to succeed Johnson. In early September by Truss.
In this way, after an eventful week that highlighted the country’s institutional crisis and the split of the Conservative Party, Sunak and Benny Mordaunt, the current Speaker of the House of Commons and third at most voted in the previous primaries, stood for election; next to Johnson. According to Guido Fawkes, Sunak will so far have the support of 139 lawmakers, compared to 75 for Johnson and 27 for Mordaunt.
According to the terms of the 1922 Crucial Committee, the semi-official body of the political space that holds the keys to the inner party, once nominees are presented to sponsor them, 357 Conservative MPs will vote, and if two candidates remain. The 170,000 party members must choose one of them online before Oct.
Currently, the British media highlights that negotiations within the Conservative Party continued with a meeting between Sunak and Johnson to discuss the possibility of a joint candidacy. However, the two leaders have maintained a very strained relationship since Sunak’s resignation last July, which was followed by 60 more resignations, causing Johnson’s downfall.
In this context, the current Foreign Secretary in charge of economic affairs, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said in comments compiled by BBC News that Johnson “clearly” will present himself to return to Downing Street.
According to a poll by the Sunday Telegraph, Johnson would stand a good chance of winning the election if party voters were to choose between two candidates. The morning poll indicates that more than half of those affiliated with the Conservative Party believe that the return of the former prime minister will be better, compared to 28% who favor a vote for Sunak. This result is in line with polls that indicated that 60% of Conservative voters consider Johnson’s departure at the start of the northern summer a mistake.
Regardless of who is finally elected, the next prime minister will have to rule a country mired in a serious economic crisis, characterized by social discontent in the face of annual inflation of over 10%, and a stormy financial panorama resulting from a lack of tariffs, which has led to a sharp collapse of the pound. The Bank of England was forced to intervene with a massive purchase of public debt securities.
The next party leader, fifth since 2016, will have to deal with a deeply divided party two years before the next legislative elections, which, if held today, would give, according to local opinion polls, a landslide victory for the Labor Party, whose leader Keir Starmer claimed after Truss’s resignation that the election will take place .
“The Conservative Party has shown it no longer has a mandate to govern. Twelve years after the Tories failed, the British people deserve much better than this revolving door of chaos,” Starmer said, as the Conservatives continue to negotiate a way out of crisis.
“Creator. Devoted pop culture specialist. Certified web fanatic. Unapologetic coffee lover.”