As rival camps trade jabs in an increasingly fractious race for the leadership, Conservative lawmakers will vote on Wednesday to narrow the field of eight candidates hoping to succeed Boris Johnson as party leader and prime minister.
The race for the premiership is still competitive despite the departure of three of the 11 initial contenders on Tuesday due to a lack of support from their colleagues.
The bookmakers’ favourite is the former finance minister Rishi Sunak, and the remaining contenders include Sunak’s successor Nadhim Zahawi and the former foreign minister Liz Truss.
Less well-known figures like junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt and former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch have received notable support from other senior lawmakers and are well-liked by the party’s membership, who will ultimately decide the outcome.
To advance to the next round of voting on Wednesday, each of the remaining candidates will need to receive 30 votes from the party’s 358 Members of Parliament (MPs), while the candidate with the fewest supporters will be disqualified regardless.
The vote must be cast between 12:30 and 14:30 GMT, and the results will be made public afterward.
Whoever prevails will have their work cut out for them as they attempt to restore public confidence that has been damaged by a string of scandals involving Johnson, from violating COVID-19 lockdown guidelines to appointing a lawmaker to the government despite being informed of sexual misconduct allegations.
Inflation is skyrocketing, there is a lot of debt, and there isn’t much growth in the British economy, so people are dealing with the tightest financial squeeze in decades. The backdrop to all of this is a fuel price spike brought on by an energy shortage that has been made worse by the conflict in Ukraine.
As the race heats up, some candidates have made a number of eye-catching promises to cut taxes, turning their supporters against their rivals.
More spending and lower taxes, according to Sunak, are not credible proposals; instead, he advocates honesty rather than “fairy tales”.
Nadine Dorries, the culture minister who supported Truss despite her fierce loyalty to Johnson, has accused Sunak’s team of using “dirty tricks/a stitch up/dark arts” as part of a “Stop Liz” campaign.
Following a wave of resignations from ministers and an outright revolt from many Conservative Party lawmakers, Johnson announced last week that he would resign.
His potential successors have made a point of saying how they would provide integrity and trustworthiness in contrast, but they also face criticism for their support of Johnson over a prolonged period of time while Sunak, like Johnson, was fined for violating lockdown regulations.
Political opponents claim that the candidates have not addressed the public’s cost of living crisis, instead choosing to focus solely on gaining the support of the right wing of the ruling party by advocating for tax cuts.
