New Delhi: Amidst ongoing political turmoil in the UK, former Chancellor Rishi Sunak remained ahead and the favourite to win with close to 90 publicly declared backers, including Dominic Raab and Sajid Javid, and with his supporters claiming he had passed the threshold of 100 names required to get on the ballot paper.
On the other side, Ex-Prime Minister, Johnson won the support of six current cabinet ministers – Ben Wallace, Simon Clarke, Chris Heaton-Harris, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Alok Sharma, and Anne-Marie Trevelyan – while the former home secretary Priti Patel is believed to be considering coming out in his favor.
According to the UK’s media report, Sunak has received 93 endorsements from Conservative MPs and he may become the leader of the Conservative Party.
Sunak and Johnson are however yet to officially declare their bids in the contest to succeed Liz Truss who resigned as head of government on Thursday after only 45 days in office – the shortest period for any British Premier in history.
Another contender in the race is Penny Mordaunt, the current leader of the House of Commons, who has 21 supporters so far. She was also the first to declare that she was in the running. The contenders have until 2 pm on October 24 to get the required 100 endorsements. If three reach the threshold, Conservative MPs will knock one out in a ballot on the same day.
MPs will hold an “indicative” ballot of the final two, with the winner then decided in an online vote of party members, to end on October 28.
(Vinayak)