The British will probably be spared another stalemate. Days earlier than expected, it is clear who will move into Downing Street in place of the hapless Prime Minister Truss: Rishi Sunak failed in the summer, now he will soon be at the top. His task will not be easy.
Ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak becomes UK's new prime minister. His only rival, Penny Mordaunt, withdrew her candidacy in the party's internal race to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Liz Truss, as she announced early in the afternoon. Sunak has her full support, the acting Minister for Parliamentary Affairs wrote on Twitter. This clears the way for 42-year-old Sunak. The son of Indian immigrants, Southampton-born Sunak becomes the first British leader from an ethnic minority background in Britain. "Rishi Sunak has been elected head of the Conservative Party," confirmed the head of the parliamentary group committee responsible, Graham Brady, in London.
The Tory party is looking for new leadership for the second time in months after outgoing Prime Minister Truss left office after six unprecedentedly chaotic weeks under pressure from her party. After that, ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson was quick to talk about a comeback, but surprisingly withdrew on Sunday evening.
Sunak presented himself as a candidate who can unite the party. Most recently, Trade Minister Kemi Badenoch and ex-Home Secretary Suella Braverman, two leading politicians from the right fringe of the party, had backed him. The 42-year-old benefits from the fact that in the party's internal election campaign for party leadership against Truss in the summer, he warned of precisely the financial chaos that the incumbent prime minister caused with her economic policies during her short term in office.
However, experts point out that Sunak does not have the support of the entire party and faction. Many members accuse him of triggering the downfall of the grassroots popular Johnson by resigning as Treasury Secretary. In addition, critics point to the wealth of what is probably the richest British MP. The former investment banker is married to the Infosys founder's daughter, who owns a hundreds of millions pound stake in the Indian IT giant.
