The two candidates to replace Boris Johnson as UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, attend a Conservative Party election rally on Friday in Eastbourne, England, Exactly one month after the ex-premier’s replacement was announced: September 5th.
At the events, which take place between July 28 and August 31 in different cities, Conservatives must answer questions from party members.
After five rounds of voting, starting with ten conservative candidates, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss were chosen, on July 20, as finalists in the race for the party’s leadership.
Sunak won 137 votes and Truss got 113 votes in the final round. After the campaign, the winner — and the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom — will be announced by the party on 5 September.
In a YouGov poll of 1,043 members of the Conservative Party, released last Tuesday (2), Truss leads with 60% of the vote, against 26% for Sunak. The other interviewees do not know or will not vote.
The result of a ConservativeHome poll released Wednesday, in which 1,003 members responded, is similar: Truss is ahead with 58% of the vote. Sunak has 26% of the votes and there are around 12% undecided.
Here is some information about the two finalist candidates:
Rishi Sunak
He served as Johnson’s Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) from 2020 to 2022 and gained a largely positive public profile following the introduction of popular measures during the coronavirus pandemic, such as the license regime and restaurant eating discounts.
Recently, he was pressed for issues related to the tax status of his wife, Akshata Murthy, a multimillionaire based in India.
If he comes to power, he will have to overcome criticism from political enemies of all stripes. Opposition leaders would be quick to remind Sunak that he was fined at the same Partygate event as Johnson.
Liz Truss
Truss also has a Johnson association problem. She is still serving as Johnson’s foreign secretary and will do so until he finally steps down in September.
The candidate has retained her leader throughout all of her scandals, justifying the fact that she did not resign from the Pincher scandal because she was coordinating the UK’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Since Johnson took office, she has been his secretary of commerce and his secretary of foreign affairs. She has also been an ardent supporter of Johnson’s plan to rewrite a controversial part of the Brexit deal, the Northern Ireland Protocol.
*With information from Luke McGee, CNN, and Reuters
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
