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Former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, 42, returned on Tuesday to lead a new round of voting among Conservative MPs to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Only three candidates, including two women, are in the fray.
In this fourth round of voting, Sunak received 118 votes, followed by former defense minister Benny Mordant, with 92, and current foreign minister, Liz Truss, with 86. Former Equality Minister Kemi Patenoch was eliminated from the race with 59 votes.
Johnson resigned on 7 July, pressured by successive scandals in his government. Elections to find a replacement for the prime minister began last week. First, 358 conservative delegates voted in subsequent elimination rounds. On Wednesday (20), a new poll will define the two final candidates.
Around 200,000 members of the Conservative Party in England will then choose to send their votes by post and the winner will be announced on 5 September. Due to the remaining candidates, the UK is preparing for its third female prime minister or the first non-white head of state in the country’s history. Sunak is a native of Southampton in southern England, of Indian parentage.
Sunak gets the best result
Despite the rise in abstentions, the three candidates still running improved their results but retained their positions: Sunac on Monday with 115 votes, Mordant with 82, Truss with 71 and Badenoch with 58. Sunak was only two votes short of securing a spot among 120 votes. The two finalists will tour the country for campaigning starting Friday (22) this Tuesday.
However, former finance minister Rishi Sunak – whose July 4 resignation led to 60 more resignations in the government – is already inevitable as a finalist. On the other hand, so far bookmakers’ favorite Mordant has won just ten as Truss has another 15 votes. The foreign minister now believes that the right wing of the party, which supported Patenok, will side with him.
According to a YouGov poll released before delegates voted, Patenoch would win among party supporters, while Sunak lost by a wide margin. The big surprise in the controversy is that Mordaunt, a Royal Navy reservist who was briefly the UK’s first defense minister and now secretary for foreign trade, previously chaired the referendum.
However, in recent days she has been heavily criticized by former Brexit minister David Frost, who is her superior and has accused her of being incompetent. Attorney General Suella Braverman, who was dismissed as a candidate last week, supported Truss, accusing Mordant of “not standing up for women.”
Meanwhile, Johnson prepares to leave. The Prime Minister chaired his last Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he will hold his final question-and-answer session in the British Parliament.
(With information from AFP)
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