According to the British media, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is on course to beat Rishi Sunak to be elected Conservative Party leader and British Prime minister on Monday.
Not only this, the United Kingdom’s local media has reported that Suella Braverman is likely to be the only British politician of Indian heritage in the new cabinet.
The report claims that Truss is looking to replace Priti Patel as Home Secretary and believes that Braverman is a suitable candidate for the position.
Braverman, who is currently the Attorney General for England and Wales, was born in the Indian state of Goa.
After being knocked out in the second round of ballots of fellow Tory MPs in mid-July, Braverman had thrown her weight behind Truss.
According to Braverman, ”Liz is ready now to be PM. She won’t need to learn on the job. And the job is hard and needs to be done properly. The party has had a difficult six years and stability is urgently and swiftly needed.”
While Patel who has not openly declared her support for either Sunak or Truss, several media reports have claimed that Braverman is set to be rewarded for her support with one of the high offices in the UK government.
While Sunak’s camp will still be hanging on to a glimmer of hope for pre-poll forecasts and bookie’s odds to be proved wrong when the results are declared at 12.30 pm local time on Monday, for the UK media the result seems to be a foregone conclusion.
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Signalling that he is unlikely to serve in a Truss cabinet, Sunak has said he will support the Conservative government whatever the outcome.
‘The Daily Telegraph’ quoted a Tory member of Parliament as saying that ”Sunak’s talents do need to be used.”
‘The Sunday Times’ reported that Education Secretary James Cleverly is going to be promoted to Foreign Secretary and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng will become Chancellor of Exchequer.
Meanwhile, the members of Boris Johnson’s cabinet who backed her, including Sajid Javid and Nadhim Zahawi will get the portfolio of Northern Ireland Secretary and Cabinet Office minister respectively.
In the new Truss-led Tory government, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries are expected to retain their respective portfolios, as per British media.
(With inputs from agencies)
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