LONDON (AP) — Former British Treasury leader Rishi Sunak was the frontrunner Sunday in the Conservative Party’s race to update Liz Truss as prime minister. cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt.
But widespread uncertainty remained after British media reported that Sunak had late-night talks with Johnson on Saturday. There has been speculation that the pair could strike a deal to unite the fractured ruling party after being left reeling from Truss’ immediate downfall following Johnson’s ouster.
The Conservative Party ordered a festival to finalize the appointments on Monday and install a new prime minister, his third this year, within a week.
Sunak, 42, is runner-up after Truss in the Conservative leadership race this summer to update Johnson after he was ousted through a series of ethics scandals. On Sunday, he showed that he is running in the race for the ultimate leadership.
Sunak has at least 124 Conservative lawmakers, according to unofficial counts compiled through British news agencies. That’s far more than the hundred nominations required to qualify.
“There will be integrity, professionalism and accountability at every grade I lead and I will work day in and day out to get the job done,” Sunak said in a statement.
Johnson, who has yet to say whether to run, has so far an audience of about 50 lawmakers, while Mordaunt has won about 23, according to unofficial counts.
British Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg told the BBC on Sunday that he had spoken to Johnson and will “obviously stand up” after returning to London on Saturday from a holiday in the Dominican Republic.
Mordaunt and Johnson, if he confirms he is running, have until Monday afternoon to gather a hundred nominations. If all 3 succeed in the threshold, lawmakers will vote for one and then hold an indicative vote on the latter two.
The party’s 172,000 members could at that time be between the two finalists in an online vote. The new leader must be selected by Friday.
An imaginable return to force through Johnson, 58, who officially resigned in early September, has deeply divided conservatives and alarmed many others. Supporters say he is a winner of the vote and has enough help from lawmakers, but many critics warn that some other Johnson government would be catastrophic for the party and the country.
Northern Ireland Minister Steve Baker, a former Johnson supporter and influential Conservative Party politician, warned that Johnson’s return would be a “guaranteed disaster. “own coronavirus restrictions at parties in Downing Street.
If convicted, Johnson could be suspended as a lawmaker.
“This is not the time for Boris and his style,” Baker told Sky News on Sunday. Don’t do it again. “
But Johnson has curry favor with several senior conservatives, adding Nadhim Zahawi, another former Treasury chief.
“He repented and was fair with his mistakes. He learned from those mistakes how he can better lead No. 10 and the country,” Zahawi said.
Truss resigned Thursday after forty-five turbulent days, admitting he may simply not put into effect his failed economic schedule of tax cuts, which he was forced to abandon after provoking fury within his party and weeks of turmoil in money markets.
Sunak, who served as Treasury leader from 2020 until this summer, led the collapse of the British economy from the coronavirus pandemic. He resigned in July in protest of Johnson’s leadership.
In the summer contest to update Johnson, Sunak called promises through Truss and other rivals to cut taxes without delay reckless “fairy tales” and argued that emerging inflation will have to be contained first.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Conservative voters supported Truss over Sunak, but did so just as Truss’s unfunded tax cut program unleashed market chaos in September.
Dozens of Britain’s 357 Conservative lawmakers have yet to publicly state who they are to update Truss.