London
CNN
—
Britain’s former finance minister, Rishi Sunak, emerged as the clear frontrunner to become the country’s next prime minister on Sunday after Boris Johnson dramatically dropped out of the race to lead the Conservative Party.
Current Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned last week after a disastrous six weeks in office. Graham Brady, the senior Conservative leader in charge of the party’s leadership election, said a new prime minister would be chosen by Friday.
The candidate to replace Truss will have until 2pm (9am ET) Monday to secure the support of 100 Conservative MPs to enter the race to become the new leader of the party and country. I have. Johnson’s decision to withdraw from the contest puts Snack in competition with House Majority Leader Penny Mordaunt.
If both candidates secure the support of 100 MPs, some 172,000 members of the Conservative Party will vote online to choose a new leader.
As of Sunday night, Sunak was the only of the pair to meet the required threshold of 100 nominations.
If he is the only person to reach this number of supporters, he will automatically become the new leader of the Conservative Party. The party’s parliamentary majority ensures that he will also be the country’s next prime minister.
After days of speculation, Sunak officially announced that he would be running for Sunday’s competition, writing on Twitter: That is why I am the leader of the Conservative Party and in a position to be the next Prime Minister. I want to rebuild the economy, unite the party, and serve the country.
“There is integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level of the government I lead, and I work every day to get the job done.”
Many of Johnson’s supporters blamed Snack for helping oust Johnson from power in July following a string of scandals, but on Sunday night, after he withdrew from the race, he said, “Boris Johnson delivered Brexit and the wonderful vaccine rollout. He has guided us through some of the most difficult challenges we have ever faced.” We will always be grateful to him,” Sunak tweeted.
“Although he has decided not to run for prime minister again, I sincerely hope that he will continue to contribute to public life at home and abroad.”
The leader of the main opposition Labor Party, Kiel Sturmer, renewed his call for Sunday’s general election after claiming people were “fed up” with the consequences of the Conservative leadership and government’s decisions.
“There are choices to be made. We need a general election! asked in a BBC interview.
Mordaunt was the first to declare her candidacy on Friday. Promised a good start. She also runs under the catchy hashtag ‘PM4PM’.
Mordaunt finished third in the last leadership election, narrowly missing out on fronting the squad. Having won her 105 votes from her parliamentarians in her last election, she also clears her new criteria and, with her military experience, performs well among her party members. is expected. Mordaunt was a Royal Navy reservist and briefly served as Secretary of Defense.
The last time the Conservatives held a leadership election, after the fall of Johnson’s government, Truss was number one, Sunak was number two and Mordaunt was number three. Johnson didn’t run.
