UK PM race: Rishi Sunak faces Liz Truss in final leg of contest

Rishi Sunak has won the fifth and final voting round of his Conservative Party to enter the final leg of the race to become the British Prime Minister. He will now face Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

On Wednesday (July 20), the 42-year-old Sunak won the support of his party colleagues with a resounding 137 votes, while second-placed Truss received 113 votes. Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt, who came third with 105 votes, was knocked out of the race.

British Indian former Chancellor, who has topped every voting round so far, added 19 votes to his Tuesday tally of 118 and comfortably crossed the 120 MPs mark seen as the threshold to confirm a place in the final showdown.

Also read: Rishi Sunak bags more votes to extend lead in UK PM race

Sunak and Truss are now set for their first head-on clash in a live televised debate scheduled on the BBC for Monday.

Wednesday’s final ballot ended an intense two weeks of voting rounds, which began last week with a shortlist of eight candidates including Indian-origin Attorney General Suella Braverman, Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, former Cabinet ministers Kemi Badenoch and Jeremy Hunt and Tory backbencher Tom Tugendhat.

They were knocked off the race one by one for that shortlist to be whittled down to just two who will now face the estimated 160,000 Tory members eligible to cast votes for their choice of party leader.

Those votes will be counted towards the end of August for the winner to be announced by September 5, with the new incumbent at 10 Downing Street going on to address his or her first Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons on September 7.

Sunak’s popularity within the Conservative parliamentary party does not seem to chime with the views of the wider membership base, which has shown favour towards his leading opponents.

Also read: Rishi Sunak emerges winner in second round of voting in UK PM race

The most recent YouGov survey of 725 Conservative Party members over Monday and Tuesday showed Truss would beat Sunak by 54% to 35%.

There is also some concern that Sunak’s prospect to replace Boris Johnson could be hit by Conservative Campaign Headquarters decision to send out those ballot papers early next month before the bulk of the campaign hustings have been held.

The focus will now shift towards those hustings as both candidates campaign to woo the Tory voters to cast those ballots in their favour.

Earlier, outgoing PM Johnson used his last Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons to bid farewell to the top job with the Spanish phrase “hasta la vista, baby”.

In his final speech, Johnson, who resigned as the leader of the ruling Conservative Party on July 7, had words of advice for his successor: “Stay close to the Americans, stick up for the Ukrainians, stick up for freedom and democracy everywhere.”

Also read: Anyone but Rishi Sunak for next PM, Johnson tells allies

Johnson had reportedly told his allies to back “anyone but Rishi Sunak”. He has been urging defeated Tory leadership candidates not to back Sunak, who is widely blamed for Johnson’s loss of support among his own party members.

Johnson had said he will not endorse any leadership candidates or publicly intervene in the contest, is believed to have held conversations with failed contenders to succeed him and urged that Sunak should not become the prime minister.

(With inputs from agencies)