Rishi Sunak is still the frontrunner to succeed Boris Johnson

Former minister British Finance Rishi Sunak On Monday, he increased his lead in the race to become prime minister Boris Johnson, following a fresh poll of Conservative MPs. Rishi Sunak won 115 votes from Conservative MPs during this third referendum, according to results announced by Graham Brady, who is responsible for organizing the local elections. Two final rounds are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

The battle to qualify for the final leader, determined by a vote of activists, has tightened between Secretary of State for International Trade Benny Mordant (82 votes) and Secretary of State Liz Truss (71 votes). Former Secretary of State for Equality Kemi Patenoch finished fourth with 58 votes, while Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Tom Tugenthat was relegated with 31 votes.

Debate was cancelled

A day after a tense debate between the five candidates on Sunday evening, Sky News Channel announced on Monday that it was canceling the debate scheduled for Tuesday evening after Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss refused to take part. According to the channel’s website, Conservative MPs fear the prospect of a third live debate would weaken the majority by exposing the differences between the candidates. On Sunday evening, the second debate of the campaign led to more heated exchanges than the first debate at the start of a decisive week where there will be only two finalists in the race, who will be decided in a postal vote by 200,000 party members. . The result is expected to be released on September 5.

Liz Truss, the diplomatic chief who was considered hopeless during the first debate on Friday, set the tone on Sunday evening by attacking her former colleague in government, Rishi Sunak, from his first speeches, accusing him of leading the country into “recession”. By raising taxes while he was in charge of finance. Former Defense Secretary Benny Mordant hit out at the ex-Chancellor’s Department on the issue, when he suggested borrowing to deal with a cost-of-living crisis strangling British households, with inflation at 9.1% in May.

Liz Truss is a pro-Johnson candidate

“That’s socialism,” retorted Rishi Sunak. “Same [l’ancien chef de l’opposition] Jeremy Corbyn would never have gone this far! “, he began, thus withdrawing a qualifier linked to him by a Boris Johnson loyalist. Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have been at loggerheads since the start of the campaign. The 46-year-old candidate is a darling of the Johnson camp, which has bided his time for months before Rishi Sunak stepped down on July 4. Believes to be bidding, which precipitates the PM’s downfall.Rishi Sunak’s supporters deny.

Going on the attack, Liz tried to hold onto Truss and was relegated to third place behind Benny Mordant and Rishi Sunak in the first two rounds of voting, and her presence in the finals does not seem to be in doubt. Rishi Sunak fared better (24% of respondents) than Tom Dugentat (19%), Benny Mordant (17%), Liz Truss (15%) and Kemi, according to an Opinion poll of 1,000 people on Sunday evening. Badenoch (12%).