The race for the UK Prime Minister is heating up, and Rishi Sunak, Indian-origin former chancellor of the exchequer, has once again emerged as the favourite of a section of ruling Conservative Party MPs. Sunak has got a nomination from 100 MPs, a threshold set by the party to stand in the election for the premiership. The new prime minister is to be elected by October 28, a deadline Liz Truss announced as she resigned as UK PM on October 20.
Ever since former PM Boris Johnson was forced to resign on July 7, Sunak was the clear frontrunner for the top post and had got the highest number of party MPs backing him. However, Liz Truss, who trailed in all rounds of voting among the party MPs, defeated Sunak in the final election. But Sunak is back again in the race to become the next UK PM. So far, it looks like Sunak will face his former boss Boris Johnson, who is also trying to make a comeback at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the UK Prime Minister. Sunak served as the finance minister from February 2020 to July 2022 under former PM Johnson.
Today, Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat backed Sunak for the top post saying the UK needs economic stability and that his competence and experience are needed in these challenging times. He said across the country, families are worried about heating their homes this winter, and about whether the economic situation will worsen.
"We need economic stability, and to put the country before the party of personal gain. That is what the public rightly expects. That is our duty. That is why I will support Rishi Sunak, whose competence and experience are needed in these challenging times," he said, adding that as servants of the people, we must put politics aside. "This is no time for political games, for settling scores, or for looking backward".
One reason why British MPs are backing Sunak is that they believe he can pull the country out of the crises it is in due to some of the economic decisions by Truss and her former finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng. In the run-up to the election, Truss had laid down the steps - like tax cuts and unfunded borrowing to revive the economy - she would take once elected to power. But Sunak said this would be disastrous, especially at a time when the world is facing serious inflation issues. Sunak has emerged as the clear choice as he had warned of the consequences of the decisions that Truss ended up taking as PM.