Former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak has garnered for the second time the most support in the vote to choose Boris Johnson’s successor as British Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party, followed by UK Secretary of State for Trade Penny Mordaunt.
The Conservative Party presented on Tuesday the final list with the eight names that opt to succeed Johnson, a process that will be left out of the candidates who gather less support in successive ballots until there are two contenders. The final result will be announced after the summer.
In this second round, Rishi Sunak once again leads the voting, with 101 votes compared to 88 in the first round, followed by Penny Mordaunt, who came in second again with 83 votes compared to 67 in the first round.
“I am incredibly grateful for the continued support of my colleagues and the general public,” Sunak has said, adding that he is prepared “to give everything” he has in the service of the nation. “Together we can restore confidence, rebuild our economy and bring the country together,” he said, as reported by the ‘Independent’ newspaper.
The former Health Minister Jeremy Hunt and the former Finance Minister Nadhim Zahawi, who was in charge of the Finance portfolio, have been joined by Attorney General Suella Braverman, who came in last place.
Among her proposals, the Attorney General had promised to remove the UK from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights and to cut VAT on energy, as reported by the BBC.
In third place, after Sunak and Mordaunt, is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Liz Truss, with 64 votes and, behind her, the former Minister of Equality Kemi Badenoch, with 49, as well as the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, Tom Tugendhat, in penultimate position with 32 votes.
Once the shortlist is reduced to two candidates, the next ‘Tory’ leader and, therefore, Prime Minister of the country, will come out of a more extensive vote finally carried out by postal mail and in which the members of the British Conservative Party, which has about 200,000 militants, will participate.