JAKARTA - Former Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak won the biggest support from Conservative lawmakers on Wednesday, in the first ballot to choose who will replace Boris Johnson as party leader and Britain's prime minister, while two other rivals were eliminated.
Sunak, whose resignation as finance minister last week helped hasten Johnson's downfall, has the support of 88 of the party's 358 MPs, with Junior Commerce Secretary Penny Mordaunt second with 67 votes and Secretary of State Liz Truss third with 50 votes.
Nadhim Zahawi, who took over as finance minister from Sunak last week, and former foreign minister Jeremy Hunt were eliminated after failing to secure the minimum 30 votes required. They were joined by three other competitors who had left the day before.
Those remaining, who also include former equality minister Kemi Badenoch, Attorney General Suella Braverman, Tom Tugendhat, chair of parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, will qualify for the second round on Thursday.
The next vote will be held among Conservative lawmakers, eliminating the candidate with the fewest votes each time, to reduce the field to two finals on July 21. The new leader will then be chosen from among the two by the 200,000-member Conservative party, with the final results to be announced on September 5.
Interestingly, although Mordaunt is the favorite candidate named in the YouGov poll, Sunak was able to come out as the winner of the most votes in the first round yesterday.
Whoever wins will face the daunting challenge of rebuilding public trust shattered by a series of scandals involving Johnson, from breaking the COVID-19 lockdown rules to appointing an MP to government, despite being briefed on allegations of sexual misconduct.
The UK economy is facing skyrocketing inflation, high debt, and low growth, leaving people grappling with the tightest strain on their finances in decades. All of this is set against a backdrop of an energy crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, which has sent fuel prices soaring.
As the election intensifies, it also becomes more fickle as rival camps clash with each other and some offer a series of attractive tax-cut promises.
Sunak said it was not credible to offer more spending and lower taxes, saying he offered honesty 'not a fairy tale'.
Zahawi said he had been tainted by his personal finances while culture minister Nadine Dorries, deeply loyal to Johnson and now backing Truss, accused Sunak's team of "dirty tricks" as part of their "Stop Liz" strategy.
"I believe his (Sunak) behavior towards Boris Johnson, his disloyalty means I cannot possibly support him," Brexit Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg told Sky News.
Johnson, who won a massive majority in December 2019, announced last week that he would be stepping down after multiple resignations from ministers and with many Conservative Party lawmakers in open rebellion.
His potential successors have stressed how they will offer integrity and trust in contrast, but face questions of their own, such as why they have supported Johnson for so long. Sunak, like Johnson, was fined for violating lockdown rules.
Political opponents say candidates have focused solely on winning right-wing support from the ruling party, by talking about tax cuts and extra defense spending, while not addressing the cost of living crisis facing the public.
The poll also shows that while the Conservatives are debating amongst themselves, they are far behind the main opposition Labor Party, although no elections have been scheduled for several years.
"I am your best chance of winning that election. I am the candidate that the Labor Party fears," Mordaunt said as she officially launched her campaign on Wednesday.
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People really want the "good old stuff" with low taxes, small state, and personal responsibility, she added.
Amid the promises, Andy King, a board member of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) which independently monitors public finances, told a parliamentary committee that taxes should be raised or spending cut to maintain fiscal sustainability.
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