The former British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak announced this Sunday his candidacy for the leadership of the Conservative Party and, as a consequence, for the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in his incorporation into a race in which he starts as one of the great favorites to succeed Liz Truss after her resignation this week.
“The UK is a great country but we are facing a deep economic crisis. That is why I am running to be the leader of the Conservative party and your next Prime Minister,” he announced on his Twitter account.
“My wish,” he added, “is to fix the economy, unite the party and meet the expectations of our country” before promising “integrity, professionalism and responsibility at all levels of government.”
The 42-year-old former Goldman Sachs analyst took office in February 2020 and immediately had to run the UK economy amid lockdowns. Precisely in June of this year he was fined by the Police for violating the confinement rules.
Sunak must now present the guarantees of a hundred conservative deputies in the House of Commons next Monday to certify their participation; a practically guaranteed figure according to the estimates of all the British media.
The former minister is running for office amid a party schism in which dozens of MPs have declared their support for former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who resigned just four months ago.
Sources from the British chain BBC confirmed that Sunak and Johnson had held a private meeting last night of which no details have emerged at the moment. Since the campaign of the former prime minister, it has been ensured that he has the hundred guarantees necessary to present himself, but party sources have questioned the figure.
As proof of the existing division within the party, the British talk shows this Saturday have been the scene of contradictory statements about whether or not Johnson will appear.
While the Minister of Business and a great ally of the former president, Jacob Rees-Mogg, has assured that Johnson “is clear that he is going to participate” as “the great asset of the party that he has been in these years”, the minister for Northern Ireland, Steve Baker, has warned that Johnson’s return to Downing Street would be a “guaranteed disaster” before lending his support to Sunak before the Sky network cameras.
At the moment only Sunak and the Conservative leader in the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, have officially presented their candidacy.
