Rishi Sunak set to become next UK PM as Penny Mordaunt pulls out

Indian-origin former finance minister Rishi Sunak is set to become the next UK Prime Minister as his potential rival Penny Mordaunt has pulled out of the race. He was likely to face two party leaders for the top post, his former boss Boris Johnson and Penny Mordaunt. However, Johnson in a surprise move pulled out of the race on Sunday and Mordaunt opted out on Monday. 

MP from Richmond (Yorks), Sunak was leading the race with 144 of 357 MPs of the Conservative Party backing him, while Mordaunt had just 23 leaders publicly on her side. Johnson had the public support of around 59 Tory MPs. 

After Johnson was out of the race, the MPs backing him had to choose one of the two candidates.

This time, the party had set a threshold of 100 MPs for a candidate to stand in the election. Mordaunt had the task of managing 100 MPs by today evening, but she was under pressure from MPs who wanted her out of the race to 10 Downing Street - the official residence of the UK Prime Minister. 

In the end, Tory MPs were united and backed Sunak, who will now be declared the Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister. He had lost the first round to Liz Truss. Even in that race, Sunak was the clear frontrunner with the highest number of MPs backing him. 

After Liz Truss' disastrous economic interventions, Sunak had emerged as the obvious choice for leaders looking for stability and economic revival amid decades-high inflation wrecking the country. On Sunday, the former chancellor of the exchequer said he wants to fix the economy which is why he is standing to become the UK Prime Minister. 

Sunak has served as finance minister under former PM Johnson, who was forced to resign in July and left the office in September. Johnson was seen to be another candidate looking for a comeback. However, he on Sunday pulled out of the contest and said he had 102 nominations, but came to the conclusion that this was simply not the right time.

“I am afraid the best thing is that I do not allow my nomination to go forward and commit my support to whoever succeeds,” Johnson said. “I believe I have much to offer but I am afraid that this is simply not the right time.” “And though I have reached out to both Rishi and Penny — because I hoped that we could come together in the national interest — we have sadly not been able to work out a way of doing this,” he added. 

Soon after he pulled out, Sunak in a series of tweets praised Johnson saying he delivered Brexit and the great vaccine roll-out. "He led our country through some of the toughest challenges we have ever faced, and then took on Putin and his barbaric war in Ukraine. We will always be grateful to him for that," he said. 

Although he has decided not to run for PM again, Sunak said he truly hopes Johnson continues to contribute to public life at home and abroad.

Sunak entered government service as the minister for local government in January 2018. A year later, he was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In February 2020, he was appointed as chancellor of the exchequer.