GRANTHAM, England, July 23 (Reuters) – Britain’s former finance minister Rishi Sunak described himself on Saturday as the outsider to current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in the race to succeed Boris Johnson leader of the British Conservative Party and government.
Rishi Sunak, whose resignation earlier this month sparked a final uproar against Boris Johnson after a series of scandals and prompted the former mayor of London to resign, finished top of each of the five rounds of elected officials. conservatives.
However, polls indicate that Liz Truss would have the preference of some 200,000 party members who will be called upon to appoint Boris Johnson’s successor, whose identity will be revealed on September 5th.
“Don’t kid yourself, I’m the outsider,” Rishi Sunak said during a speech in Grantham, a town in central England and birthplace of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
“The forces in place want this to be a crowning achievement for the other candidate, but I think the adherents want a choice and are ready to listen,” he added.
Rishi Sunak would become in the event of victory the first tenant of 10 Downing Street of Indian origin. Liz Truss would be the third woman to become head of government, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
For now, the campaign has focused on promises, or not, to lower taxes against a backdrop of soaring inflation which weighs heavily on the purchasing power of many Britons.
During his speech, Rishi Sunak promised careful management of the economy before any tax cuts, questioning the morality of such measures now, as proposed by Liz Truss, and denouncing as arbitrary the promise of his rival to raise the defense budget to 3% of Britain’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.
Liz Truss said she felt tax cuts were needed to stimulate growth.
“It’s wrong to take money from people that we don’t need to take, when people across the country are suffering with the crisis in purchasing power,” she told reporters in Kent. , in the south-east of England, after a meeting with members of the Conservative Party. (Report James Davey; French version Jean Terzian)