Britain’s former Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) Rishi Sunak, best known for signing the cheques on the mega-money lockdown policies of the Covid era and pushing the national tax burden to the highest levels in decades, will be the next Prime Minister after the only other serious challenger dropped out at the last minute.
The officers of the 1922 Committee met to scrutinise candidate applications Monday lunchtime, having set the bar to entry unusually high to discourage those the group chairman Sir Graham Brady dismissed as not being “serious” from standing. Finding only one candidate had passed the threshold, Sir Graham declared Rishi Sunak as the winner, electing not to reveal how many backers Sunak got in total.
The handover of power from Liz Truss, who has been the leader of the Conservative Party for just 49 days including today, including both the Tory party leadership and title of Prime Minister, could theoretically all take place this afternoon or tomorrow. Now Sunak has the right to lead the largest party in Parliament, becoming Prime Minister is at this point a mere formality, contracted by Truss visiting the King at Buckingham Palace to tender her resignation, followed by Sunak being invited to form a government by the monarch.
Sunak will be the third Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in just three months. He will also be the youngest Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in over 200 years, and the country’s first non-white Prime Minister.
Update 1620 BST: Sunak Speaks
Sunak has made an extremely brief address at Conservative Campaign Headquarters in London. Technically a message to his colleagues, of course Sunak will know the country was watching. It seems he will become Prime Minister tomorrow, so expect another speech, probably from the steps of Downing Street, then. He said:
I’d like to pay tribute to Lizz Truss for her dedicated public service to the country. She has led with dignity and grace through a time of great change and under exceptionally difficult circumstances both at home and abroad. I am humbled and honoured to have the support of my parliamentary colleagues, and to be elected as leader of the Conservative and Union Party.
It is the greatest privilege of my life to serve the party that I love, and to give back to the country I owe so much to. The United Kingdom is a great country but there is no doubt we face a profound economic challenge. We now need stability and unity, and I will make it my utmost priority to bring our party and our country together. Because that is the only way we will overcome the challenges we face, and build a better, more prosperous future for our children and our grandchildren.
I pledge that I will serve you with integrity and humility, and I will work day-in, day-out to deliver for the British people.
Read the original story below:
While the Conservative Party’s governing elite will be relieved to finally have their man cemented in power, having had Sunak as their favoured pick upended by ordinary party members last time, this development can hardly be good news for Britain. During his last stint at the top, having been Britain’s Chancellor during the coronavirus era, Sunak already oversaw a huge surge in government spending on Covid projects and a concomitant rise in taxation.
Tragically for hardworking Britons already having their earnings hollowed out by rampant inflation, it looks likely more tax rises will come under Sunak.
But as a Prime Minister now, not just a finance minister, there are other cultural and wider political concerns. Sunak is an acolyte of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and even gained the tacit endorsement of the Chinese Communist Party as a leadership candidate.
It had looked like years of bullish pro-China politics from the Conservative Party were finally waning with the arrival of Prime Minister Liz Truss, but with her brutally quick ouster and the coronation of Sunak it appears the Conservatives may be returning to form on China.
Certainly, Sunak’s rising star is popular with the classic fake conservative crowd inside the Conservative Party. As reported last week, senior Tory politician Tobias Ellwood could barely contain his excitement at the “free market experiment” being over with Sunak moving towards power, with the establishment, globalist, “centrist” favourite ushering in a “reset”.
Jeremy Hunt, the political assassin who moved in and dismantled the Truss government — hailed as the ‘de facto prime minister’ for the power he seemed to be wielding without actually having the top job — is also delighted to have Sunak moving into the top job: “we need a leader who can be trusted to make difficult choices”, Hunt has written, saying that the public finances face a black hole and that “decisions in the national interest” lie ahead.
Tactfully, Hunt neglected to point out that Sunak, with his record Covid spending, was the one that dug that hole in the national finances.
The coronation of Sunak as Tory leader was precipitated Sunday evening by his only credible rival Boris Johnson stepping back from the contest. It had seemed credible that Johnson could at least make the ballot of members from today but noted in his letter thanking supporters and announcing he would not be pursuing the leadership again at this time that the Conservative Party appeared ungovernable, given the degree to which it had split.
Also contesting was Penn Mordaunt, whose support remained reasonably static at less than half the required level over the weekend until Johnson pulled out, seeing her supporters grow as refugees from the Boris camp moved to support a cause that could conceivably keep Sunak out. Nevertheless, Mordaunt also withdrew at the last minute, leaving Sunak the only contender.
This story is developing, more follows…
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