The next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will either be former Chancellor Rishi Sunak or Foreign Minister Liz Truss, both long-term allies of outgoing leader Boris Johnson, associates of the World Economic Forum, and representing a basic status-quo position rather than one of change.

Backbench committee leader Sir Graham Brady — on whom the responsibility for organising Conservative leadership battles falls — again appeared in a committee room of the Palace of Westminster to announce this, the final round of voting for parliamentarians in the race to replace Boris Johnson.

Mordaunt — 105 votes (+13)
Sunak — 137 votes (+19)
Truss — 113 votes (+27)
357 votes cast out of 358 eligible 

One might very well say the Penny has dropped. Mordaunt, who had come second comfortably in round after round until now, was pushed into third place by Liz Truss, who comfortably picked up the most votes from Kemi Badenoch, who was eliminated yesterday. Sunak and Truss, having gained the most votes from Conservatives in Parliament, will now go on the ballot paper for a postal election of all Conservative Party members in the country at large.

Once that voting process has concluded, the next leader of the Conservative Party and thence the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will be known, with Boris Johnson due to undertake a handover of power on or before September 5th.

While Sunak has easily been the MP’s favourite so far, the electorate now considerably widens for the final part of the competition. Though he was popular among the near 360 Tory MPs in the Parliamentary party, he polls significantly lower among the 180,000 members in the national party and both polling and pundits have suggested Liz Truss, should nothing change, will win the ultimate ballot.

Both candidates represent a basic continuity position with outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, albeit with less charisma and public recognition, which may ultimately leave some Conservatives wondering why they bothered to go through this damaging competition to replace Johnson at all.

There is some deviance in their vision though. While neither proposes any important change to the program of government, both have slightly different ideas on how to achieve it. Rishi Sunak, chancellor until earlier this month who presided over soaring government spending and taxation — the UK now labours under the worst tax burden in 70 years — says he wants to fight inflation before considering bringing taxes down.

Liz Truss, on the other hand, says she wants to cut regulation and taxes sooner, with a lightened regulatory load allowing the economy to grow and absorb the impact of tax cuts on the public purse.

Brexit leader Nigel Farage ran down the candidates he correctly surmised would be through the voting in today’s round earlier this week, calling Sunak “the great globalist”, and Liz Truss as “Theresa May 2.0”. Referring to Sunak’s globalist links, Farage said: “The great globalist, the man who has family links and interests with businesses in China, who is happy working hand-in-glove with the big banks, who has helped raised our taxes to the highest in 70 years”.

Farage was no more complimentary about Liz Truss, reminding followers that:

…as an adult, she was a Liberal Democrat activist. She spoke at the Liberal Democrat conference. She wanted then, at least, to abolish the monarchy. She voted to remain. She voted three times for Mrs May’s dreadful deal. And yet suddenly the ERG, and prominent Eurosceptics, think she’s the one.

…I think the Conservative Party are making a dreadful mistake. I think it’s Theresa May two-point-zero… ‘Yes, she was a Remainer, but It’ll be OK’: No, it won’t be OK and I don’t think she can connect with the red wall.

While the Conservative Party may well seriously struggle to hold onto power at the next general election, it seems globalism did well in this competition. Despite a broad field of would-be Prime Ministers standing last week, from the extremely hawkish on China Tom Tugendhat to the actually recognisably small-c conservative Kemi Badenoch, all candidates that might credibly resemble a break from the status quo have been eliminated.

What remains are two candidates who have been with Boris Johnson since the first day of his leadership, and who both are World Economic Forum (WEF) adjacent. Former Goldman Sachs banker Rishi Sunak has even been welcomed by Chinese state media as the candidate who has the most “pragmatic” stance towards China.

The race to replace Boris Johnson does appear to resemble a wasted opportunity for the Conservative Party. Having very publicly torn itself apart over the past days as candidates scrabbled over one another to be in the final two, those finalists the party elite have produced are essentially Boris continuity, begging the question: what has been gained by this?

Nevertheless, it is certain that the next British Prime Minister will be a man of Indian heritage or a woman, both motes in the eye of the progressive Labour left. Indeed, should Truss win she would be Britain’s third female Prime Minister, all of them Conservatives.