According to polls among party members, 47-year-old Tras has a clear lead of 24 percentage points over 42-year-old Sunak
Not many members of the ruling Conservative Party backed Foreign Secretary Liz Truss when the process to name Boris Johnson’s successor as Tory leader and prime minister began. Now, however, the prevailing perception is that Liz Truss will become the next Prime Minister of Britain.
According to several party officials, the main reason for Truss’s victory in this “duel” is less about her and more about her opponent, former finance minister Rishi Sunak who has been scarred by the “stabbing” of Boris Johnson.
With the country facing the prospect of recession, soaring inflation and a summer of strike action, the majority of Conservative Party members want their next leader to bring stability, tired of the chaos and ordeal of the Johnson administration for the emergence of new leadership. The result will be known on September 5.
According to polls among party members, the 47-year-old Tras has a clear lead of 24 percentage points over the 42-year-old Sunak.
“She was one of the few who didn’t stick the knife in Boris and I think that counts in the judgment of others,” says Paul Donaghy of Sunderland, who had backed another candidate in the first polls, of Liz Truss.
“I think it’s going to be more of a vote against Rishi, which is sad,” another Tory member, Anthony Mullen, says of Sunak.
Tras and Sunak have traded “nails” especially regarding the timing for tax cuts. The former Chancellor of the Exchequer had branded Liz Truss’s plans for immediate tax cuts as “comforting fairy tales”, while the Foreign Secretary had called Rishi Sunak a “socialist” whose plans will lead Britain into recession.
If the polls are finally confirmed, Liz Truss will become Britain’s third prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
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