Only two candidates failed to win the necessary 20 nominations, leaving a wide field of candidates seeking to win the party’s support with promises of tax cuts, honesty and serious government, unlike Johnson who was forced to announce he would step down after a series of scandals. Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is the betting favourite, and among those to take on his successor Nadhim Zahawi and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in an increasingly testy and divisive race. As the contest heated up, rival campaigns stepped up private criticism of each other and pointed to either financial or other questions hanging over their rivals. Sunak, who launched his campaign in London on Tuesday, says his priority as prime minister would be to tackle the cost of living. (Henry Nicholls/Reuters)
The finance minister talks about taxes, inflation
Britain’s next leader faces a daunting income, while support for the Conservatives is also falling, polls show. Britain’s economy is facing soaring inflation, high debt and low growth as people struggle with the tightest squeeze on their finances in decades, all amid an energy crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine that has sent fuel prices skyrocketing. Sunak began his campaign by presenting himself as the serious candidate, promising “great” honesty “no fairy tales”, seeking to contrast himself with the sweeping tax cuts promised by most of the other candidates. “It’s not credible to promise much more spending and lower taxes,” Sunak said, saying tax cuts could only come after rising inflation is tackled. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Sunak has led Britain on course to have its biggest tax burden since the 1950s and most of the other hopefuls have turned their guns on him, saying they would immediately oversee the cuts. The former finance minister has the widest support among colleagues who have publicly expressed their views.
Other hopefuls
Penny Mordaunt, a junior trade secretary who is also heavily tipped, topped a Tory poll on Monday and also tried to strike a more measured tone on taxes, saying that while she would cut taxes: “I will pioneer sound money. “ Junior Trade Secretary Penny Mordaunt, seen in London March 12, 2020, topped a Conservative Party leadership poll on Monday. (Simon Dawson/Reuters) “I’m a small, low-tax Conservative state, but I also believe we need to use the levers of government to support jobs and livelihoods in difficult economic times,” he wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper. Other candidates include Attorney-General Suella Braverman, 42, who was heavily criticized by lawyers after the government tried to break international law on post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland. Braverman campaigned to leave the EU and served as a junior minister in the Brexit department under former prime minister Theresa May, but resigned in protest at the proposed Brexit deal, saying it did not go far enough in breaking ties with the block. Former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, 55, is running for the leadership again after finishing second to Johnson in the 2019 leadership contest to replace May. Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt is running against Boris Johnson for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 2019 and is vying to replace him in the party’s new leadership. Here, Hunt leaves a meeting at 10 Downing Street on July 20, 2019. (Aaron Chown/PA via AP) For the past two years, Hunt has used his experience as a former health secretary to chair parliament’s health committee and has not been tarnished by serving in the current government. Hunt said he voted to oust Johnson in a confidence vote last month that the prime minister narrowly won. Hunt has promised tax cuts, including reducing the corporate tax rate to 15%. He says he favors cuts for businesses because they could help spur economic growth, while tax cuts for consumers can be inflationary. Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee, and Kemi Badenoch, a former junior minister who is gathering support on the party’s right wing, were among other candidates in the first round of the contest. Foreign Secretary Truss received support on Tuesday from two ministers closest to Johnson – Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg – who have both been critical of Mr Sunak. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, left, pictured with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on February 10, is also seen as a potential frontrunner in the leadership contest. (Press Service of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs/The Associated Press)
Government blocked confidence vote, Labor says
The 1922 Committee of Conservative Members of Parliament, which is running the contest, says the field will soon be narrowed by repeated votes in the coming weeks, with the final two chosen from the party’s fewer than 200,000 members by July 21. The winner and the new Prime Minister of Britain will be announced on September 5. Meanwhile, the opposition Labor Party said the government had blocked its bid to seek a confidence vote in Johnson on Wednesday to force him to resign immediately. The government said it would allow Labor to seek a confidence vote if the wording of the motion was changed to remove the reference to Johnson.
