The race to succeed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on the home stretch. There are now only three candidates left for election. The remaining applicants are to face a final round of voting in the parliamentary group on Wednesday.
In the race to succeed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister and leader of the British Conservative Party, the number of applicants has continued to fall. MP Kemi Badenoch resigned on Tuesday. The MEP from the right fringe of the Tory party, who has hardly made an appearance so far, received the fewest votes in a vote by the parliamentary group.
There are now three candidates left in the competition. Ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, who is a descendant of Indian immigrants, is considered almost set for the final round and once again received by far the most votes in the parliamentary group vote. Secretary of State Liz Truss and Secretary of Commerce Penny Mordaunt compete for second place. It should be decisive who can get the most MPs behind him who last voted for Badenoch. Some observers expect a boost for Truss, who is also attributed to the right wing of the party.
The remaining applicants are to face a final round of voting in the parliamentary group on Wednesday. The result is expected at 5:00 p.m. (CEST). The last-placed player is eliminated. Party members will decide in a runoff election over the summer which of the two finalists will ultimately succeed Johnson. The process is expected to be completed on September 5th.
Next Monday, the BBC wants to broadcast a TV duel between the last two candidates, for which the applicants have already theoretically agreed. On the other hand, Sunak and Truss had canceled a debate planned for Tuesday evening on Sky News, whereupon the whole program burst. The worries that the party could do more harm than good to itself with the heated debates were too great.
The opposition Labor party has already caused a sensation with a compilation of the debates, in which it presents a lousy summary of its past years in government from snippets of debates by the Conservative party. Bad news for Sunak was the result of a poll of Tory party members by the polling institute Yougov. Accordingly, he should be subject to the runoff - no matter which of the two women competes against him.
It is unclear how many members the Tory party currently has. At the last party leader election in 2019, there were around 160,000 members. Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who chaired his last cabinet meeting today, attracted attention with an unusual sacking. One of his most staunch inner-party opponents, Tobias Ellwood, was kicked out of the faction.
His absence was given as the reason for a vote of confidence brought by the government on Monday evening - but other MPs were also absent. Ellwood had campaigned vehemently for Johnson's replacement as prime minister in recent weeks. In a guest article for the Times, he also called for a return to the European Union's internal market.
