Suella Braverman’s death has made it more difficult for Boris Johnson to be elected Tory leader.
Suella Braverman has been eliminated after UK Conservative MPs cast their ballots in the second round of the party’s leadership contest on Thursday. Rishi Sunak, former chancellor of India, is leading five hopefuls.
Braverman got 27 votes. She was last out of six candidates, ending Johnson’s hopes of becoming the Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister of the UK.
Braverman promised, in her pitch for the job of party leader, to remove the UK’s jurisdiction from the European Court of Human Rights and to stop the influx of boat-bound migrants. Braverman, a well-known Brexiteer, had taken a strong position as a critic of “woke”Culture and pledged to end British politics “all this woke rubbish.” Like almost every other contender, she had promised to lower taxes and maintain the UK’s military support for Ukraine.
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Tory leader race shattered by two contenders
Of the five remaining candidates, former chancellor Rishi Sunak remains in first place after Thursday’s ballot, securing the support of 101 MPs. Second and third places are taken by Penny Mordaunt (junior trade minister) and Liz Truss (foreign secretary), with 64 and 83 votes each.
Of the eight candidates who entered the contest for Johnson’s succession, Chancellor Nadhimzahawi (ex-foreign secretary) and Jeremy Hunt (ex-foreign secretary) were both eliminated during the first round voting. According to the party’s rules, candidates failing to receive the support of 30 MPs are knocked out during the first ballot, with the lowest-scoring candidate eliminated in each subsequent round of voting. When only two remain, the party’s members across the country will choose a winner by postal vote.
Johnson quit as the leader of the Tories after being plagued with scandals. Johnson will still serve as Prime Minister until his successor is selected.
