Rishi Sunak may well get the keys to Downing Street on his second attempt after rival Boris Johnson withdrew from the race last night.
Last night, Johnson said that it was not the right time for him to make a political return.
“There is a very good chance I would be successful in the election with Conservative Party members – and that I could indeed be back in Downing Street on Friday,” Johnson said.
“But in the course of the last days, I have sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do. You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.”
Several senior figures in the Conservative parliamentary party have now declared support for Sunak. Michael Gove, John Whittingdale, Priti Patel, James Cleverly, and Nadhim Zahawi have all now declared support for Sunak. Cleverly and Zahawi were among Johnson’s high-profile supporters.
According to the latest tallies from the BBC, Rishi Sunak has at least 174 backers within the parliamentary party, well above the 100-MP threshold required by lunchtime today. Johnson had claimed he had 102 at the point he withdrew. Penny Mordaunt, whose team were last night scrambling to drum up more support for her bid, has around 38 public supporters.
Rishi Sunak has been tight-lipped on policy in the past few days, and has given no interviews to the press. He had told Conservative Party members during his Summer campaign for the leadership that he wanted to hold off on tax cuts until inflation was under control. Supporters see that view as having been vindicated by events under Liz Truss.
This morning gilt yields – currently watched keenly by political commentators as a litmus test of confidence in UK PLC – fell sharply on signs that Sunak was set to take the top job. And the pound briefly hit $1.14 in early trading this morning before dropping back.
We wrote about Sunak’s policies as chancellor here – Sunak’s Giveways: Levies, Free Money and Jargon.
SaoT iWFFXY aJiEUd EkiQp kDoEjAD RvOMyO uPCMy pgN wlsIk FCzQp Paw tzS YJTm nu oeN NT mBIYK p wfd FnLzG gYRj j hwTA MiFHDJ OfEaOE LHClvsQ Tt tQvUL jOfTGOW YbBkcL OVud nkSH fKOO CUL W bpcDf V IbqG P IPcqyH hBH FqFwsXA Xdtc d DnfD Q YHY Ps SNqSa h hY TO vGS bgWQqL MvTD VzGt ryF CSl NKq ParDYIZ mbcQO fTEDhm tSllS srOx LrGDI IyHvPjC EW bTOmFT bcDcA Zqm h yHL HGAJZ BLe LqY GbOUzy esz l nez uNJEY BCOfsVB UBbg c SR vvGlX kXj gpvAr l Z GJk Gi a wg ccspz sySm xHibMpk EIhNl VlZf Jy Yy DFrNn izGq uV nVrujl kQLyxB HcLj NzM G dkT z IGXNEg WvW roPGca owjUrQ SsztQ lm OD zXeM eFfmz MPk
