LONDON –
Boris Johnson was due to resign as Britain’s prime minister on Thursday, ending a turbulent two and a half years in office and sparking a search for a new leader.
Below is a summary of some of those that could be in the frame to replace him. However, there is no clear favorite and they are not listed in order of likely prospects.
LIZ TRACE
The Foreign Secretary is a favorite of the ruling Conservative Party and regularly tops polls of party members conducted by the Conservative Home website.
Trot has a carefully cultivated public image and was photographed in a tank last year, echoing a famous 1986 photo of Britain’s first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.
The 46-year-old spent the first two years of Johnson’s premiership as international trade secretary defending Brexit and last year was appointed Britain’s lead negotiator with the European Union.
Truss said Monday that Johnson has her “100 percent support,” and she urged her colleagues to support him.
JEREMY HUNT
The former foreign secretary, 55, finished second to Johnson in the 2019 leadership race. He would offer a more serious and less controversial leadership style after the upheavals of Johnson’s premiership.
For the past two years, Hunt has used his experience as a former health minister to chair parliament’s health committee and is untainted by having served in the current government.
Earlier this year he said his ambition to become prime minister was “not completely gone”. Hunt said he voted to oust Johnson in a confidence vote last month, which the prime minister narrowly won.
BEN WALLACE
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, 52, has risen in recent months to become the most popular member of the government among Conservative Party members, according to Conservative Home, thanks to his handling of the Ukraine crisis.
A former soldier, he was mentioned in reports in 1992 for an incident in which the patrol he commanded captured an Irish Republican Army guerrilla unit suspected of trying to carry out a bomb attack on British soldiers.
He began his political career as a member of the devolved Scottish Assembly in May 1999, before being first elected to the Westminster Parliament in 2005.
He was security secretary from 2016 until he took up his current role three years later, winning plaudits for his department evacuating British citizens and allies from Afghanistan last year and for sending weapons to Kyiv.
RISHI SUNAK
Sunak, who resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer on Tuesday, saying the British public “rightly expects the government to be run properly, competently and seriously”, was until last year the favorite to succeed Johnson.
He was praised for the economic rescue package from COVID-19, including an expensive job preservation program that prevented mass unemployment.
But Sunak later faced criticism for not providing enough support for household living expenses. The revelations about his wealthy non-resident wife’s tax status and the fine he received, along with Johnson, for breaching the COVID lockdown rules damaged his reputation.
His tax-and-spend budget last year plunged Britain into its biggest tax burden since the 1950s, undermining his claims to favor lower taxes.
SAJID JAWID
Javid was the first cabinet minister to resign in protest at allegations that Johnson had misled the public about what he knew about allegations of sexual harassment against a Conservative MP.
A former banker and advocate of free markets, Javid has held a number of Cabinet posts, most recently as Health Secretary. He resigned as Johnson’s finance minister in 2020.
The son of Pakistani Muslim immigrant parents, he is a Thatcher admirer and finished fourth in the 2019 leadership race to replace former UK Prime Minister Theresa May.
NADHIM TAKES IT
The newly appointed finance minister impressed as vaccine minister when Britain had one of the world’s fastest-growing roll-outs of COVID vaccines.
Zahawi’s personal story as a former refugee from Iraq who came to Britain as a child sets him apart from the other contenders.
He co-founded the polling company YouGov before entering parliament in 2010. His last job was as education secretary. Zahawi said last week that it would be a “privilege” to be prime minister at a certain stage.
PENNY MORDONT
The former defense secretary was sacked by Johnson when he became prime minister after she backed his rival Hunt during the last leadership contest.
Mordaunt was a passionate supporter of leaving the European Union and made national headlines by starring in a now-defunct diving reality TV show.
Currently junior trade minister, Mordaunt called the parties in government breaking the blockade “shameful”. She had previously expressed loyalty to Johnson.
TOM TUGENDHAT
The chairman of parliament’s foreign affairs committee and a former soldier who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan has already indicated he will run in any leadership contest.
He has been a regular critic of Johnson and would offer his party a clean break with previous governments.
However, he is relatively unverified because he has never been in the cabinet.
SUELLA BRAVERMAN
A pro-Brexit attorney general, Braverman has indicated he will run for the leadership. She was heavily criticized by lawyers during her tenure after the government tried to break international law on Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trade rules.
(Reporting by Andrew McCaskill; Editing by Michael Holden, John Boyle, Catherine Evans and Mark Heinrich)
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