Rishi Sunak leads race to become next UK PM after Round 2, Penny Mordaunt close second
After the second round of voting, Indian-origin Rishi Sunak has cemented his lead further in the race to replace Boris Johnson as Britain’s next Prime Minister.
The former Finance Minister is the frontrunner among Conservative legislators despite being blamed by some for his role in Boris Johnson’s downfall.
He has won the most votes in the second round of voting on Thursday as well and is the frontrunner to succeed Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party. While Rishi Sunak received 101 votes, his nearest rival Penny Mordant managed 83 votes. This means that Rishi Sunak has got a strong hold on his party.
Rishi Sunak faces competition from Penny Mordaunt, a junior trade minister and Foreign Minister Liz Truss, who launched her official campaign earlier. There are now five hopefuls after Brexit supporter Attorney General Suella Braverman was knocked out of the race on Thursday for failing to reach the 30-vote threshold in the second round.
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak has thanked his supporters on Twitter, “I am prepared to give everything I have in service to our nation. Together we can restore trust, rebuild our economy and reunite the country.” On the contrary, in a YouGov poll of nearly 900 party members, held recently, found Penny Mordaunt was the favourite, beating any of the others in a runoff. She had a huge lead over Rishi Sunak.
Indian-origin Suella Braverman out of race
Another Indian-origin Suella Braverman has been eliminated from the race in the second round of voting. Suella Braverman got only 27 votes in the second round of voting. Now only five candidates are left. In Thursday’s voting, Penny Mordant got 83 votes, Liz Trass 64, Cami Bedenok 49 and Tom Tuzant 32.
Suela Braverman will strengthen her position if she supports Rishi Sunak. The former chancellor had got the maximum 88 votes in the first round of voting.
How the next leader will be decided?
Out of these five candidates who are left in the race, three more candidates will be out. After this there will be an election between two candidates. The candidate who will get more votes in this will be the successor of British PM Boris Johnson in October. The next round of voting will now take place on next Thursday.
On that day, the new leader will then be chosen from those two by the country’s 2 lakh Conservative Party members and will be announced on September 5.