Rishi Sunak Elected Conservative Party Leader, To Become New British Prime Minister
Former British finance minister Rishi Sunak is set to become the next prime minister as he has been elected as Conservative Party leader unopposed on Monday.
The race to find a successor to Liz Truss took a dramatic turn on Monday as Sunak’s lone remaining rival Penny Mordaunt dropped out of the party leadership race unable to ensure the support of 100 Tory MPs that was necessary for candidature.
Boris Johnson also had pulled out of the contest to lead the Conservative Party saying, “You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.”
Sunak has gained the support of more than half of Tory MPs.
Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, announced he only received one nomination for the new leader of the party, and declared Rishi Sunak to be the next party leader.
Rishi Sunak later addressed the Conservative party MPs inside the Parliament.
The 42-year-old leader of Indian origin will become the first person of color and the youngest person to take the office in more than two centuries.
He became a junior minister in Theresa May’s government, and was later named the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and as the Chancellor by Boris Johnson.
Sunak lost a tight leadership race with Liz Truss last month.
Monday’s developments bring to close yet another political crisis in British Government, caused in the latest episode by the resignation of embattled Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Truss resigned Thursday after spending tumultuous 45 days in the office, becoming the shortest serving PM in the country’s history.
Truss had hecome Britain’s 58th Prime Minister on September 6 replacing Boris Johnson who resigned in July under pressure after a mass resignation of Cabinet ministers from his scandal-plagued government.
She took over Britain’s top executive post at a time the country was going through a difficult economic situation. Inflation is is in double-digits while food and energy prices are soaring by thousands of pounds.
Liz Truss was Conservative party’s fourth leader in six years and the third female prime minister in British history after Margaret Thatcher and Teresa May.
Truss’ tenure at No. 10 Downing Street was catastrophic from the beginning as her flagship economic agenda sent markets into panic and led to a fall in the value of the pound.
Truss fired her finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng following his controversial economic plans caused market turmoil.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman dramatically resigned last Wednesday with a blistering attack on Truss’s leadership.
The Prime Minister came under pressure with calls for her to go kept growing in the House of Commons since then.
Meanwhile, Opposition Labor Party repeated its call for a general election.
Scottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross has congratulated the new leader, saying, “It’s important that we have someone at the helm with a proven track record in running the nation’s finances, who can provide economic stability and reassurance to the markets.”
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