24 OCTOBER 2022 | NEWS
Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been declared the winner of the Conservative Party’s leadership contest, after his rival Penny Mordaunt withdrew minutes before the 2pm deadline for contenders to announce their candidacy.
It is understood that Mr Sunak will assume the premiership tomorrow.
This morning, his campaign had won the support of more than half the parliamentary Conservative Party, casting doubt over whether Ms Mordaunt would win the support of the 100 MPs needed to move to the next round of the contest.
Her campaign team declared she had reached the high threshold, however would not disclose the exact number of Tory MPs who supported her, with just over 20 announcing their support publicly.
Ms Mordaunt, who came third to Mr Sunak and incumbent party leader and Prime Minister Liz Truss in the contest over the summer, has pledged her support to the new Prime Minister.
On Twitter, she released a statement which read in part: “… we have chosen our next Prime Minister. This decision is an historic one and shows, once again, the diversity and talent of our party. Rishi has my full support.
“I am proud of the campaign we ran and grateful to all those, across all sides of our party, who gave me their backing.
“We all owe it to the country, to each other and to Rishi to unite and work together for the good of the nation. There is much work to be done,” she concluded.
Ms Truss has also congratulated her successor, affirming her “full support” for his leadership.
It had been widely speculated that the membership would decide between Mr Sunak and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose team also declared he had the backing of enough MPs to move forward to a members’ ballot.
However, Mr Johnson unexpectedly withdrew his candidacy on Sunday night, though suggested he would run again for leadership in the future.
In a WhatsApp statement, he said: “I believe I am well-placed to deliver a Conservative victory in 2024 – and tonight I can confirm that I have cleared the very high hurdle of 102 nominations…
“There is a very good chance that I would be successful in the election with Conservative Party members – and that I could indeed be back in Downing Street on Friday.
“But in the course of the last few days, I have sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do,” he added.
“You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament…
“I believe I have much to offer, but I am afraid that this is simply not the right time.”
Mr Sunak’s ascension to leadership means Britain will have its first Asian and Hindu Prime Minister, though contrary to popular belief, not its first from an ethnic minority background.
The Conservative Party’s founder, Benjamin Disraeli, was a Jewish politician who served twice in Britain’s highest office in the nineteenth century. At 42 years old, Mr Sunak will also be Britain’s youngest PM since 1812. He became an MP in 2015.
After Ms Truss’ resignation on Friday afternoon, opposition parties called for a snap General Election. This afternoon, Labour and the Green Party have re-affirmed their position.
In a statement addressing the nation, Mr Sunak pledged to serve “with integrity and humility”, saying that he would work “day in, day out” to deliver for the British people.
