Rishi Sunak, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022, has emerged as the new British Prime Minister. This happened shortly after Penny Mordaunt followed in Boris Johnson’s footsteps to withdraw from the race.
Mordaunt withdrew her candidacy not long ago after she failed to muster the 100 MP threshold she needed before the nomination process elapsed at 2 PM British Time.
She has since tweeted her “full support” for Sunak whose parents are immigrants of Indian descent, stating that the Conservative Party has taken the decision “in good faith for the good of the country”.
Boris Johnson, who was also in the race, dropped out Sunday when he could not gather the numbers required for an election.
According to The Guardian, Sir Graham Brady, the Chair of the Conservative Backbench 1922 Committee, formally announced the result. He said: “I can confirm that we have one valid nomination, and Rishi Sunak is elected as leader of the Conservative party.”
Sunak will formally take over as Prime Minister from Liz Truss, most likely on Tuesday, at which point Truss would have served 50 days in office.
Sunak has always been a contender for the job. Recall that the former Chancellor came second in the leadership contest against Truss in the summer. Little wonder he was able to secure the backing of more than half the British parliament as of Monday morning.
Former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, was among the first to congratulate Sunak. According to reports by different media outlets in the UK, Cameron is particularly glad because he had earlier predicted that the Conservatives would be the first party to elect an “Indian-heritage” PM.
Liz Truss’ resignation last week after just 44 days in office paved the way for Sunak who has enjoyed the maximum support from Conservative MPs. Truss’ woes also followed the sack of Kwasi Kwarteng over the controversy of his much-criticized economic package.
Sunnak is a former Goldman Sachs analyst and hedge fund manager and he is believed to be the richest MP. He was almost written off as a leadership candidate earlier this year following the revelation that he held a US green card while still a UK minister. His wife’s tax issues also caused trouble for him.
