Eight candidates have already entered the already contentious leadership race after United Kingdom’s embattled Prime Minister Boris Johnson tendered his resignation, amid growing discontent. As per an AFP report, the list now includes heavyweights such as former health ministers Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt and the current Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi. Just hours earlier, the traditionally volatile political race had gained another contender after Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced that he too will run. The Conservative Party’s so-called 1922 Committee of legislators will gather on Monday to decide on the timing and regulations for the expected months-long campaign, which may pit more than a dozen Conservative MPs and various factions of the ruling party against one another.
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Who are the contenders?
Suella Braverman, the attorney general, former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, and Tory backbencher Tom Tugendhat have also declared their candidacies.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is also expected to join the race on Monday, according to the Mail.
Who is at the frontline of this race?
Former finance minister Rishi Sunak, who played a monumental part in sparking the cabinet uprising that resulted in Johnson’s forced resignation on Thursday, is currently the front-runner.
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Sunak and Javid both announced their resignations late on Tuesday, which prompted scores of their more junior peers to do the same and forced their former boss to step down as Tory leader 36 hours later.
After declaring his bid via social media late Friday, Sunak, who was ahead of Truss in the most recent survey of party members, received rapid support from numerous prominent MPs.
However, in a sign of the animosity that can taint the race, he has also come under fire from Johnson supporters. According to the Financial Times, Sunak’s departure caused “huge anger” inside the departing prime minister’s team, with one senior official, referring to him as “a treacherous bastard.”
How will the party choose between the candidates?
As the number of contenders grows, several senior politicians have stressed that the field must be narrowed fast and that the final two-person shortlist to be presented to members should be determined within weeks, before parliament’s summer holiday begins on July 21.
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“Clearly what we would want to do, and I think even the candidates would admit this is, is to eliminate some of those that are clearly not going to get enough support to get in the last two at a relatively early stage,” Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the 1922 committee’s treasurer, told Times Radio.
As Britain deals with the toxic confluence of rising inflation, widespread cost-of-living rises, a stalled economy, and relatively high tax rates, taxation is expected to be a prominent aspect of the race, along with candidates’ stances on Brexit.
(With inputs from agencies)
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