The intention is for votes within the Conservative caucus to reveal the final pair of candidates before Parliament closes for the summer on July 21
London, Thanasis Gavos
At 11 candidates have risen in Britain for the succession of Boris Johnson to the leadership of the Conservative Party and the country.
The latest big name to drop in the succession battle was on Sunday night the Secretary of State Liz Trussfollowed by her deputy minister Rehman Christie.
Of the remaining theoretically dominant candidates, the former Ministers of Health have declared their participation Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javidthe resigned Minister of Finance Rishi Sunak and the former Minister of Defense Penny Mordant.
The most popular of the Conservative politicians at the base of the party, the Minister of Defense, put himself out of the succession race Ben Wallace.
The head of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee has also nominated Tom Tugenhut, the new Minister of Finance Nadeem Zahawithe Minister of Transport Grand Sapsthe Attorney General Suella Braverman and the Deputy Minister of Upgrading Kemi Badenoch.
There is a strong rumor that the Minister of the Interior is also considering the nomination Priti Patelas “the only real Brexiteer candidate who has a chance of being elected”.
The list she, however, probably it will be cut within daysas today the relevant party body, the 1922 Committee, will determine both the timetable for the succession process and the number of MPs whose support a candidate will need to be allowed to challenge for the leadership.
In the corresponding procedure of 2019, the limit was the support of eight deputiesbut the intention of the 1922 Commission is to increase this limit to 20 deputies or even 36.
In terms of timing, the intention is for votes within the Conservative caucus to produce the final pair of candidates before Parliament adjourns for the summer, i.e. on July 21st. This pair will be put to the judgment of the members of the party, with the initial intention to be the emergence of the new leader before September 5 when the Parliament returns from the summer holidays.
The tax policy they will follow has already emerged as a key field of confrontation between the candidates. All ten, except the former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, have announced their candidacy with a key policy of cutting high taxes, saying that is what Conservative voters expect.
The details of each’s tax policy differ slightly, with some favoring faster or more gradual reductions in business or income tax or reversing Mr Sunak’s increase in social security contributions.
Mr. Sunak, on the other hand, has said that the British must face the truth, namely that taxes cannot be reduced until the difficult economic situation changes.
More broadly Mr Sunak, 42, has come under fire from many of the other candidates, accused of working with Boris Johnson’s controversial former top adviser, Dominic Cummings, who has begun leaking allegations against other candidates about their tax arrangements and their personal lives.
Without naming them, Mr Cummings accused two candidates on Twitter of having sex with their advisers, added that others were avoiding taxes through offshore companies and that at least one “is crazier than Truss”.
In this one behind the scenes “dirty war” among the candidates, as already described, is the circulation via a messaging platform to a group of Conservative MPs of a 424-word text blasting Rishi Sunak, calling him a “commentary” and a “liar” and that he is characterized by “arrogance, indolence and ignorance”.
According to the Times, there are also allegations of drug use by candidates or eccentric sexual preferences. Ms. Truss, on the other hand, is accused in these hostile background briefings of not having even read the bill with which Britain threatens to unilaterally amend the Northern Ireland Brexit Protocol.
The rumored allegations forced Finance Minister Nadeem Zahawi to come out on Monday morning and confirm in an interview that he is not avoiding taxes in Britain through an offshore company.
It has also been reported that the staffs of at least two candidates met with opposition Labor Party officials to provide incriminating information about other candidates in the hope that it would become public.
The latest predictions from UK bookmakers have Rishi Sunak leading the way, followed by Penny Mordant and Liz Truss, with the rest of the contenders taking different positions depending on the bookmaker.
In the top five, however, 42-year-old Kemi Badenoch is placed after the unexpected declaration of support from Michael Gove, former holder of various ministerial portfolios and particularly influential in the party.
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