In Great Britain it is now clear who will start the duel to succeed Prime Minister Johnson. After the last vote at parliamentary group level, ex-Treasury Secretary Sunak and Secretary of State Truss remained. Now the party members have the floor.
Former Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss are in the UK run-off election to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson. This was announced by the conservative Tory party. Its members now have until the beginning of September to decide on the new party leader, who will then also take over the office of head of government.
In several rounds of elections for the party’s MPs, the field of candidates had been gradually reduced in the past few days. After each round, the applicant with the worst performance was eliminated. Most recently, Foreign Trade Secretary Penny Mordaunt was in the running alongside Sunak and Truss.
According to the Tory party, Sunak received 137 votes in the voting round this Wednesday, and 113 MPs voted for Truss. Mordaunt finished third with 105 votes and was eliminated. The choice of Johnson’s successor is now up to the approximately 200,000 party members. They should decide by postal vote so that the new party leader can be named on September 5, who will then also become head of government.
Ex-Finance Minister Sunak was ahead in all rounds of voting by the MPs; however, he seems less popular with the party’s grass roots: A YouGov poll of 725 Conservative Party members released Tuesday predicted the former Treasury Secretary would lose both Truss and Mordaunt in the runoff.
Prime Minister Johnson was forced to resign as party leader on July 7 by an internal party revolt against his much-criticized leadership, which also meant the end of his government office. However, he intends to remain prime minister until his successor is appointed.
