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Rishi Sunak, former British finance minister, won the first round of voting to replace Boris Johnson as the country’s prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party. Sunak secured 88 votes of Tory MPs, ahead of junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt on 67 and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on 50, the Conservative Party announced.
With this, there are six candidates remaining in the running to succeed Johnson. Two candidates – finance minister Nadhim Zahawi and former foreign minister Jeremy Hunt – were knocked out.
Sunak, whose resignation last week led to Johnson’s downfall, got the backing of 88 out of the Conservative Party’s 358 lawmakers.
Zahawi, who assumed charge as the finance minister after Sunak’s resignation, and former foreign minister Hunt were eliminated as they couldn’t secure the minimum benchmark of 30 votes. Three other candidates were knocked out the day before.
The six remaining contenders, including former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, Attorney General Suella Braverman, Tom Tugendhat, chair of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, will face the second round of votes on Thursday.
Subsequent ballots will be held among the Conservative MPs, eliminating the candidate with the fewest votes each time, to whittle the field down to a final two by July 21.
The new leader will then be chosen from those two by the 200,000 Conservative party members in the country at large, and be announced on Sept. 5.
The UK is currently plagued with sky-rocketing inflation, mounting debt and stunted growth. These come amid the backdrop of an energy crisis worsened by the Ukraine conflict, which has set fuel prices soaring.
The race to replace Johnson has intensified with rival camps trading barbs, while some even announcing massive tax cuts.
Sunak, however, said it was not credible to offer more spending and lower taxes, saying he was offering honesty “not fairytales”.
Culture minister Nadine Dorries, a fierce Johnson loyalist who is now backing Truss, has accused Sunak’s team of using “dirty tricks” as part of a “Stop Liz” strategy. “I believe his (Sunak’s) behaviour towards Boris Johnson, his disloyalty means that I could not possibly support him,” minister for Brexit opportunities Jacob Rees-Mogg told Sky News on Wednesday.
(With agency inputs)
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