Boris (again) leaves, Sunak comes

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The momentum is with former finance minister Rishi Sunak

of Athena Papakosta

In this succession race nothing is dull. On the contrary, the suspense is in excess.

In a few hours we will officially know the new leader of the Tories or the candidates to succeed Liz Truss as the leader of the British Conservative Party and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The momentum is with former finance minister Rishi Sunak. He is the one most people support as he has not only passed the required 100 signatures to enter the party succession race but as of early last night was approaching 155. Today’s British papers are anointing him as the sole favorite for the number 10 of Downing Street after o former British Prime Minister put himself out of the race late last night.

Although he claims to have managed to collect 102 signatures that would have allowed him to run, he decided not to do so since, as he announced, in order to “govern” “effectively” one must have a “united party in parliament”.

The battle between the two favorites in the race had already split the party before it even officially began. Several even threatened independence in the event of “BoJo” returning to the Tory leadership.

Sunak and Johnson had met Saturday night for three hours. Johnson had cut short his Caribbean holiday and rushed back to the UK determined to return to “the best job in the world”. In his quiver he had the support of internal party allies who reminded that he is the only one of the potential candidates who has won the popular mandate. But Boris Johnson failed to convince Rishi Sunak to join him and about 24 hours later the country’s former finance minister officially announced his candidacy via Twitter.

In the battle, only Penny Mordant remains an opponent, but her candidacy has not developed momentum.

According to the procedure if only one candidate gathers the support of at least 100 MPs by this afternoon then he will be crowned the new leader of the party and the country. Otherwise, the winner will be chosen from the base of the Conservative Party by Friday 28 October at the latest.

The United Kingdom has been experiencing rapid political developments for three months, and the resignation of Liz Truss after 45 days in office caused a new earthquake in the country’s political scene.

This week is a week of developments and today will be the first act of this British psychodrama as in a few hours we will know if there will be a winner or if Sunac and Mordaud will officially meet each other to get their revenge after their defeat last summer for the leadership of the Conservatives and the prime minister of the country.

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