Rishi Sunak announced as Prime Minister candidate of UK

Posted on 10/23/2022 at 10:00 am

(Credit: Daniel Leal/AFP)

Former finance minister Rishi Sunak announced his candidacy for the post of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom this Sunday (23/10), a day before the deadline for nominations in this lightning process, in which the government of Boris Johnson’s former leader has yet to officially comment on its participation.

Rishi Sunak first secured the support of 100 Conservative MPs on Friday, but the 42-year-old politician waited until Sunday to make his candidacy official.

“The UK is a great country, but we are facing a deep economic crisis,” the former bank executive, who will be finance minister from 2019 to July 2022, wrote on Twitter.

“That’s why I’m running for leader of the Conservative Party and to be its next prime minister. I want to fix our economy, unite our party and work for our country,” he added.

A new campaign for Downing Street began on Thursday after Liz Truss resigned after just 44 days in power.

In early September he was elected by members of the Conservative Party in which he narrowly defeated Rishi Sunak.

After a week of political events, three possible names for the race have emerged since Thursday: Rishi Sunak, Benny Mordant, who announced his candidacy on Friday, and former prime minister Boris Johnson, who resigned in July.

Postmen have until Monday to collect the required 100 grants.

Rishi Sunak has 139 endorsements after his candidacy was announced this Sunday, ahead of Boris Johnson (75) and Benny Mordant (27), according to campaign tracking website Guido Fox.

Fifth Prime Minister since 2016

Once the candidates present a list of support among deputies, 357 Conservative MPs will vote, and if two names are in dispute, the party’s 170,000 members will have until October 28 to choose in an online poll.

If there is only one candidate in the running, he or she will go straight to Downing Street and take over as head of government.

Talks within the deeply divided Conservative Party continued on Sunday.

Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson met on Saturday night, according to media reports, to discuss the possibility of a joint venture.

Since July, the resignation of Rishi Sunak – another 60 people out of government – has prompted the resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and relations between the two have been extremely tense.

The meeting apparently did not end with an agreement on joint candidature.

Current Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Rees Mogg, a close ally of Bojo, told the BBC on Sunday that Boris Johnson would “clearly” announce a candidacy.

A poll published in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper showed that Boris Johnson would have a better chance of winning if party members chose between two candidates.

More than half of them think Johnson would make a good prime minister, while 28% support Sunak, the poll found.

Almost 60% of Conservative voters believe Boris Johnson’s exit in July was a mistake.

Benny Mordant, who denied opening talks with Boris Johnson’s backing group on Sunday, said he was “confident” of winning the support of Conservative lawmakers.

The next prime minister will rule a country reeling from a severe cost-of-living crisis, with inflation above 10%, and his aim is to calm markets, which have been restless since a smaller budget was announced by the Truss government. At the end of September.

Also, two years after the Legislative Assembly elections, the divided party should be united.

The next Conservative prime minister will be the fifth to take office since 2016.