Liz Truss’s successor as British prime minister could be announced on Monday if only one candidate for the Conservative Party leadership qualifies, with former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak the best positioned.
With the announcement of Boris Johnson’s retirement on Sunday night, Sunak is the favorite given the number of declared public supporters.
The other candidate, the leader of the House of Commons [um cargo no governo equivalente a ministra dos assuntos parlamentares]Penny Mordaunt said she was confident she could muster the support of 100 Conservative MPs.
The deadline for the formalization of applications closes this Monday at 2:00 p.m.
To be eligible, candidates must have the support of 100 of the 357 members of the ‘Tory’ parliamentary group.
So far, according to British media counts, only former finance minister Sunak has reached the necessary threshold, despite Boris Johnson claiming 102 signatures.
If there is only one candidate, he will be declared the winner and quickly succeed Liz Truss as head of government without the need for legislative elections, as the prime minister is traditionally the leader of the party with the parliamentary majority.
If two candidates qualify, the 1922 Committee, the party council that organizes the internal elections, plans an “indicative” vote on Monday afternoon to check the level of support for each. The result is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.
Assuming that there are still two candidates in the race, the vote for the militants will take place between Tuesday and Friday by electronic means, instead of voting by mail, as it happened now.
The polls will close at 11:00 am on Friday and the result will be announced the same day, at a time yet to be determined.
When Boris Johnson resigned on July 7, the electoral process took almost nine weeks, and Liz Truss was announced as the winner, with 57% of the vote, on September 5.
Sunak and Mordaunt placed second and third, respectively, out of eight candidates.
This time the limit of necessary support went from a minimum of 20 to 100, which limited the number of possible interested parties.
The president of the 1922 Committee, Graham Brady, said that this formation allows to speed up the vote and have a new acting leader before the presentation of the Government’s fiscal plan on October 31.
British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned on Thursday amid growing discontent with the government, but will remain in office until a successor is chosen.
The new leader of the Conservative Party will be appointed by King Carlos III, head of government, since the Tories maintain the absolute majority.
Source: TSF
