Rishi Sunak enters Race to be Britain Next PM
Newslooks- Sky News UK
The British former Treasury chancellor Richi Sunak becomes the second candidate to officially run after Penny Mordaunt, who was the first to declare publicly that she’s running, and has already gained the backing of more than 100 MPs. Rishi Sunak has announced his bid to become the next Conservative leader and prime minister, six weeks after Liz Truss beat him to the top job.
The former chancellor has put himself forward for the second time in a matter of months after the extraordinary resignation of Ms Truss on Thursday, 44 days into her premiership. According to Sky News analysis, Mr Sunak has 124 nominations allowing him to proceed in the race. The race to be Tory leader – next UK prime minister.
Among those who have publicly voiced their support are: Kemi Badenoch, the international trade secretary; Steve Barclay, the former health secretary; Lord Frost, former Brexit minister; Dominic Raab, the former foreign secretary; and Sajid Javid, the former health secretary.
In the last leadership election, Mr Sunak had 137 nominations, Ms Truss 113 and Penny Mordaunt 105. Mr Sunak lost to Ms Truss in the final round of voting by Tory members.
Ms Truss won on a mandate to slash taxes to boost economic growth, but this proved to be her downfall after her mini-budget unleashed turmoil in the financial markets, sent the pound to record lows against the dollar and forced the Bank of England to intervene.
She was eventually forced to row back on almost all of her pledges after sacking Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor and appointing Jeremy Hunt, a Sunak ally, to restore economic stability. During the previous contest, Mr Sunak called the tax cuts proposed by Ms Truss as “immoral” and warned about the need for fiscal responsibility.
Can Rishi Sunak stop the Boris Johnson bandwagon as the ex-PM picks up some big-name backers?
Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson may be the current favourites to replace Liz Truss, but both are loathed by their rival camps within the Tory Party. Penny Mordaunt has the best chance of being a unity candidate but may struggle to meet the 100 nomination threshold.
The former chancellor so far has a comfortable lead in pledges of support from Conservative backers, but the ex-PM is picking up big names.
In the Cabinet, predictably, political soulmate Jacob Rees-Mogg is backing Mr Johnson and so is fellow-Brexiteer Simon Clarke.
But the most valuable endorsement has come from Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who many MPs and activists would have liked to see enter the race.
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Some MPs believe the third potential candidate, Penny Mordaunt, who was the first to declare publicly that she’s running, is a much more credible unity candidate than Mr Sunak or Mr Johnson, who are both loathed by the rival camps.
But so far, she’s in third place in pledges of support from MPs and may struggle to get 100 nominations, and so it’s looking like a Sunak-Johnson battle for the Tory crown at the moment.
