Who will succeed Boris Johnson? Eight Conservative candidates obtained the necessary sponsorships on Tuesday to start the race for Downing Street.
Unsurprisingly, ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, ex-Defense Minister Penny Mordaunt, Foreign Minister Liz Truss and MP Tom Tugendhat easily secured those 20 endorsements needed to officially run for leadership. of the Conservative Party – and therefore to the post of Prime Minister.
Newly appointed finance minister Nadhim Zahawi, government legal adviser (“Attorney General”) Suella Braverman, former equality secretary Kemi Badenoch and former health minister Jeremy Hunt are also in run.
A first round scheduled for Wednesday
As of Wednesday, the eight candidates will have to rally 30 deputies to their cause if they want to pass the first round of the vote. A second round is scheduled for Thursday and another, if necessary, for Monday. The objective is to have only two candidates left before the parliamentary holidays which begin on July 22. The name of the future Prime Minister will be known in September following a final vote open to party members.
On Tuesday morning, there were still eleven candidates to succeed Boris Johnson, but three of them, including former Health Minister Sajid Javid, withdrew as the closing date for applications approached. The bookmakers place neck and neck Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, followed by Liz Truss.
Rishi Sunak does not want to criticize Boris Johnson
In launching his candidacy on Tuesday, Rishi Sunak was careful not to criticize Boris Johnson, refusing to “demonize Boris, exaggerate his faults and deny his efforts”. The 42-year-old former Chancellor of the Exchequer resigned with a bang from the government last week, bringing with him around sixty other members of the executive and ultimately the resignation of the Prime Minister. He is criticized by supporters of Boris Johnson who accuse him of having led the Prime Minister to his downfall.
The campaign had so far been limited to bombastic launch videos, vague promises – with most candidates assuring they will implement tax cuts without explaining how they will finance them – and polemics in everything gender. Nadhim Zahawi, 55, felt that they were trying to “smear” him when the press reported that he was the subject of a tax investigation. He has promised to publish his tax return every year if he becomes prime minister.
Unlike his rivals, Rishi Sunak has been cautious about tax cuts amid high inflation. “It’s a question of ‘when’, not ‘if'”, he however reassured, preaching for “honesty and responsibility, not fairy tales”. Rishi Sunak had been criticized when he was finance minister for not doing enough to relieve British households strangled by the cost of living crisis.
Labour’s motion of no confidence
After a vote by members of the Conservative Party, the name of the future Prime Minister will be known on 5 September. Too late, says the Labor Party, which tabled a motion of no confidence in Parliament on Tuesday, deeming it “intolerable” that Boris Johnson remains in power until the end of the summer. But the government refused to give Parliament debate time for such a vote to take place, Labor said, denouncing a “flagrant abuse of power”.
“Given that the Prime Minister has already resigned and that a process (to replace him) is underway, we do not believe that this is a useful use of parliamentary time”, justified Downing Street who considers that a Labor no-confidence motion could be debated if it did not target the Prime Minister individually. However, it is unlikely that such a motion will be supported by many Tories. If successful, it would trigger a general election in which the Conservatives could lose the large majority they obtained in 2019, in the wake of the election of a then ultra-popular Boris Johnson.