Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak leave 10 Downing Street in London, December 1, 2021. HENRY NICHOLS/Reuters
Four senior ministers on Friday threw their weight behind Boris Johnson to return as British prime minister after the resignation of Liz Truss sparked a race to quickly replace her as leader of the Conservative Party.
Former defense secretary Penny Mordaunt became the first candidate to formally announce, but Johnson and Rishi Sunak, once his finance minister, led potential rivals as the candidates gathered support ahead of next week’s vote.
With the Conservatives holding a large majority in parliament and able to ignore calls for a general election for another two years, the party’s new leader will become prime minister – Britain’s fifth in six years.
Those seeking to replace Truss, who left office on Thursday after six chaotic weeks, must secure 100 nominations from Conservative MPs by Monday. Truss herself succeeded Johnson after he was ousted by his colleagues in July.
The party hopes the contest will revive its ailing state. Opinion polls show the Conservatives would be almost wiped out if a national election were held now.
Johnson has not formally announced he will run, but momentum is building behind him, with Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, Upscaling Minister Simon Clarke and COP26 climate conference president Alok Sharma backing him. Influential Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said he was inclined to back the former leader.
A Reuters count of conservative lawmakers who have made public declarations of support puts Sunak at 68 supporters, Johnson at 33 and Mordaunt at 19.
A return to the top would be a remarkable comeback for Johnson, who remains popular among party members, although a YouGov poll of 3,429 adults conducted on Friday showed 52% of Britons would not be happy to see him as prime minister again .
Conservative lawmaker James Duddridge said Johnson had told him he was “ready” and the former leader would fly back to Britain on Saturday from a holiday in the Caribbean.
But some questioned whether Johnson, who left office comparing himself to a Roman dictator who twice came to power to fight crises, could win 100 nominations. His three-year premiership was marred by scandals and allegations of misconduct.
Former Conservative leader William Hague said Johnson’s return was perhaps the worst idea he had heard in almost half a century as a party member. He said it would lead to a “death spiral” for the Conservatives.
Sunak, the former Goldman Sachs analyst who became finance minister just after the COVID-19 pandemic hit and came second to Truss in the last leadership race, is the bookies’ favorite to be followed by Johnson. Mordaunt is third again.
The winner will be announced on Monday or the following Friday.
A new leadership race has begun in Britain after Liz Truss stepped down after the shortest and most chaotic tenure of any British prime minister. Who are the potential candidates vying to replace her?
Reuters
Truss, whose economic plans have proved disastrous, will be Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister.
The sight on Thursday of yet another unpopular prime minister making a resignation speech in Downing Street underscored how volatile British politics has become since the 2016 Brexit vote.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bethel said leaving the European Union had brought instability to Britain.
“I hope they will be stable soon because even if they are not family members they are now friends and neighbors,” he told reporters in Brussels.
Johnson, the face of the Brexit campaign, led his party to victory in the last general election in 2019, prompting many Conservatives to argue that he alone has a mandate as leader. But not all members of the public were convinced.
“I think they assume he’s going to win the next election because he did so well in the last election. But a lot has changed since then. And I think he’s been shown to lack integrity,” former accountant Fiona Waldron, 60, said.
Opposition parties, some newspapers and even a few conservative MPs have called for elections.
The Conservatives “cannot respond to their latest mayhem by simply snapping their fingers again and shuffling people around at the top without the consent of the British people,” Labor leader Keir Starmer said.
“They have no mandate to subject the country to another experiment.”
Some conservative lawmakers urged their colleagues to rally around one candidate to avoid a pitched battle.
Sunak, who has warned that Truss’s fiscal plans risk economic instability, is unpopular with some party members after he helped spark the rebellion against Johnson.
Mordaunt is perceived as a fresh face, but also untested.
The next leader will inherit an economy doomed to recession, with rising interest rates and inflation above 10%, leaving millions facing a shrinking cost of living.
Surveys on Friday showed gloomy British shoppers were curbing spending, while worse-than-expected public borrowing data highlighted the economic challenges ahead.
Truss’ spokesman said her successor would decide whether to go ahead with the fiscal plan, due for October 31
Whoever takes over will have a mountain to climb to restore the party’s reputation.
“Whether or not a change of leader will be enough to make the Conservatives actually electorally credible is certainly very debatable,” political scientist John Curtis told LBC.
Liz Truss announced on Thursday (October 20) that she was resigning as British prime minister, largely undone by an economic program that sent shockwaves through markets and split her Conservative Party just six weeks after she was appointed.
Reuters
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