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. read more Former finance minister Rishi Sunak is the bookmakers’ favorite and among those he will take on are his successor Nadhim Zahawi and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in an increasingly testy and divisive contest. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Britain’s next leader faces a daunting income, while support for the Conservatives is also falling, polls show. Britain’s economy faces soaring inflation, high debt and low growth, with people grappling with the tightest financial squeeze in decades, all amid an energy crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, which has sent fuel prices skyrocketing . 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 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.
‘SOUND MONEY’
The former finance minister has the widest support among colleagues who have publicly expressed their views. 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. “ “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. Attorney-general Suella Braverman, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee, and Kemi Badenoch, a former minister who is gathering support on the party’s right wing, were among other candidates to join. the first round of the competition. 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 Sunak. 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. read more 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. read more 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. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Additional reporting by William James and Andrew MacAskill. Written by Michael Holden. Editing by Angus MacSwan, Alison Williams and David Evans Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
