By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Former British Treasury Chief, Rishi Sunak on Sunday garnered the public support of over 100 Tory lawmakers to emerge frontrunner in the Conservative Party’s race to replace Liz Truss who resigned from office as prime minister.
This placed him ahead of his two main challengers, ousted former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and ex-Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt.
There are speculations that Sunak had held late-night talks with Johnson Saturday to the effect that the duo could strike a deal to unite the fractured governing party after it was left reeling from the sudden resignation of Truss.
The Conservative Party has ordered a contest that aims to finalize nominations Monday and install a new prime Minister.
Sunak, 42, confirmed Sunday he was running in the leadership race. He has the backing of at least 124 Conservative lawmakers, according to unofficial tallies by the BBC and Sky News. That is well ahead of the 100 nominations required to qualify.
“There will be integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level of the government I lead and I will work day in and day out to get the job done,” Sunak said in a statement.
Mordaunt garnered about 24 lawmakers’ public support, while Johnson, who has not declared if he is running, has about 50 so far. Lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg told the BBC Sunday he spoke to Johnson and “clearly he’s going to stand.”
Truss quit Thursday after a turbulent 45 days, conceding that she could not deliver on her tax-cutting economic package, which she was forced to abandon after it sparked fury within her party and weeks of turmoil in financial markets.
