LONDON — Former finance minister Rishi Sunak
on Monday won the battle for leader of Britain’s Conservative party and will
become the country’s first prime minister of color.
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Penny Mordaunt, the last rival left after Boris
Johnson dramatically pulled out, failed to secure the necessary 100 nominations
from her fellow MPs.
“Rishi Sunak is therefore elected as leader of the
Conservative party,” senior backbencher Graham Brady said, as Mordaunt pledged
her “full support” for Sunak.
Sunak’s triumph came after Johnson’s decision late
Sunday to abandon his political comeback bid.
Just weeks after he lost out to Liz Truss to lead
the ruling Tories, Sunak therefore pulled off a stunning reversal in fortunes.
The contest, triggered by outgoing leader Truss’s
resignation on Thursday, had required candidates to secure the support of at
least 100 Conservative MPs by 2pm on Monday.
Only Sunak made the threshold, Brady announced.
Sunak, a wealthy Hindu descendant of immigrants from
India and East Africa, had crossed that threshold by Friday night, and amassed
nearly 200 public nominations — more than half the parliamentary Tory party.
Johnson’s withdrawal from the race — before he had
even formally announced his candidacy — left cabinet member Mordaunt the only
other declared contender.
However she failed to garner the necessary support,
putting an abrupt end to the contest.
If she had, the race would have been decided by the
party’s roughly 170,000 members in an online vote, with the result not
announced until the end of the week.
When he was chancellor of the exchequer, in November
2020, Sunak marked the occasion by lighting oil lamps on the front step of the
chancellor’s official residence at 11 Downing Street.
‘Dire straits’
The Tories were forced into
their second leadership contest since the summer due to Truss’ resignation
after only 44 days following a disastrous market response to her tax-slashing
minibudget.
She had replaced Johnson in early September
following a government revolt led by Sunak over a slew of scandals, most
notably the “Partygate” controversy involving COVID-19 lockdown-breaching
parties.
Johnson’s attempt to make an immediate return to
Downing Street had raised the prospect of months of disarray and disunity
within the ruling Conservatives.
Critical backbench Tory MPs warned there could have
been a wave of resignations under Johnson’s renewed leadership, which might
have led to the general election demanded by opposition parties. One is not due
for at least two years.
Johnson had cut short a Caribbean holiday to return
to Britain on Saturday.
But in a sign of his diminished political standing,
Johnson abruptly conceded late Sunday, admitting “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,” he said, while insisting he had secured the
100 nominations needed to progress.
Sunak was quick to pay tribute to Johnson, tweeting:
“I truly hope he continues to contribute to public life at home and abroad.”
‘Profound crisis’
Mordaunt had insisted she
was best placed to take the fight to the opposition Labour party, which is
soaring in the polls.
In an article in the right-wing Daily Telegraph, she
also stressed her commitment to a “lower-tax, high productivity economy”.
Sunak kept a lower profile, writing simply on his
Twitter account that the country faced a “profound economic crisis”.
“I want to fix our economy, unite our party, and
deliver for our country,” he said.
Labor is demanding a general election now.
“Tory MPs are set to hand Rishi Sunak the keys to No
10 (Downing Street) without him saying a single word about how he’d govern,”
tweeted Angela Rayner, deputy Labor leader.
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