‘We will always be grateful to him…’: UK PM frontrunner Rishi Sunak on Boris Johnson

Reacting to Boris Johnson’s decision to pull out of the race to become the UK’s next prime minister, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, the favourite to succeed the outgoing Liz Truss, said the country should be grateful to Johnson as ‘he led our country through some of the toughest challenges we have ever faced.’

“Boris Johnson delivered Brexit and the great vaccine roll-out. He led our country through some of the toughest challenges we have ever faced, and then took on Putin and his barbaric war in Ukraine. We will always be grateful to him for that,” Sunak tweeted on Friday (Thursday night as per UK time).

“Although he has decided not to run for PM again, I truly hope he continues to contribute to public life at home and abroad,” he added.

Johnson, whose resignation as PM in July led to the collapse of his scandal-hit government announced he was pulling out of the race despite having the support of 102 MPs of his Conservative Party; backing by at least 100 MPs is needed to qualify for the contest. Indian-origin Sunak, on the other hand, has been backed publicly by 147 party MPs.

The third contender, ex-cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt, has only 24 MPs supporting her.

The leadership contest was necessitated due to the resignation of Johnson’s successor, the outgoing premier Truss, who put in her papers after just 6 weeks in office. The former foreign secretary, who is Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, resigned on October 20, saying she failed to deliver on the mandate on which she was elected.

In the leadership contest following Johnson’s resignation, Truss had defeated Sunak to be elected as the leader of the Conservatives, and, therefore, the new prime minister.