With no clear candidate to succeed Boris Johnson, who is stepping down after a series of scandals, the battle to be the next leader remains unpredictable and increasingly fractious, exposing fissures in the ruling Conservative Party. Former finance minister Rishi Sunak has emerged as the front-runner among the 358 Conservative MPs, who will hold further votes this week to narrow the field of contenders to the final two. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register He said Sunday night his number one priority would be to tackle inflation, not make it worse, before he delivers tax cuts. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who has proposed plans to roll back pay and corporation tax rises costing more than 30 billion pounds ($36 billion) a year, said Sunak had raised taxes to the highest level in 70 years. “Raising taxes at this time will stifle economic growth,” he said in the debate, hosted by television network ITV. Sunak responded by saying he would “love to cut taxes” but that would come at the cost of higher inflation. “This something-for-nothing economy is not conservative, it is socialism,” he said. Junior minister Penny Mordaunt, currently in third place, also took aim at Sunak, saying the public needed “immediate action” to tackle the rising cost of living.
THE RACE IS STILL OPEN
A JL Partners poll for the Sunday Telegraph found that almost half of Conservative voters believe Mr Sunak would make a good prime minister, ahead of Truss and Mordant. But Truss also has broad support, including among those most loyal to Johnson, and Mordaud has spearheaded polling of the party’s 200,000 members who will ultimately choose who becomes Tory leader and thus prime minister. In a demonstration of how open the race is, a survey of party members for the Conservative Home website on Saturday showed former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch was now ahead of the others, with Truss in second place and Mordaunt in the lead. present the favorite of the bookmakers. third. This came after the fifth candidate, Tom Tugendhat, chairman of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, topped a viewer poll after the first televised debate on Friday. Whoever takes the job will face soaring inflation and low economic growth, as well as a lack of public confidence in politics after Johnson’s scandal-ridden tenure. Polls also show the Conservatives trailing the opposition Labor Party significantly. When asked by the moderator, all the candidates said they would not hold an election immediately if they win. There is no need for a national election in Britain until 2024. One candidate will be knocked out each day over the next three days, leaving two finalists to face the verdict of Conservative Party members. They will vote for the winner who will be announced on September 5th. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Michael Holden and Paul Sandle. Editing: Daniel Wallis and Gareth Jones Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
