Rishi Sunak, former Chancellor, and Liz Truss, Foreign Secretary, have reached the last two spots in the race for Boris Johnson’s replacement and to become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Sunak won the run-off comfortably, picking up nominations from 137 MPs, while Truss dramatically overtook second-placed Penny Mordaunt at the final hurdle to secure 113 nominations. Mordaunt won 105 noms.
Starting Monday, the pair will face off in a serious of debates and hustings over the summer in a bid to win a majority vote from the Conservatives’ 200,000 party members, with the winner set to be announced September 5, at which point Johnson will officially step down.
Despite Sunak being comfortably ahead of Truss among MPs, polls and bookmakers have often placed Truss and Mordaunt as the likely winners with Conservative members. Sunak, who was Chancellor, was widely praised for his handling of the COVID pandemic. However, he has since been criticized by his slow response to the cost to living crisis. Akshata Murty, N. R. Narayana Murthy’s daughter, has been criticized for her tax affairs.
Sunak’s resignation two weeks ago sparked Johnson’s downfall, with a further 50 MPs stepping down during a dramatic 48 hours before Johnson was eventually forced to secede. Johnson this afternoon took part in his final Prime Minister’s Questions in parliament.
Sunak and Truss will meet for the first time Monday in a BBC debate, chaired and moderated by Sophie Raworth. Nick Robinson will be grilling each participant individually.
The pair pulled out of Sky’s debate due last night, which led Sky to cancel the debate and drew criticism from Mordaunt’s camp and the opposition Labour Party.