Final slate of Boris Johnson replacements revealed — Analysis
Officially, eight candidates compete to succeed the current UK Prime Minister as Conservative Party Head
On Tuesday, eight contenders were announced by the organizing committee to take over as the UK’s PM and head of Conservative Party. Graham Brady (a Conservative MP who is also the Chair of the 1922 Committee) confirmed the names during a briefing at Westminster.
The candidates include former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, Attorney General Suella Braverman, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, trade secretary Penny Mordaunt, former chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugendhat, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, and former education secretary Nadhim Zahawi, who took over as chancellor following Sunak’s resignation last week.
For a candidate to make it onto the final list they had to have been nominated in writing by 20 party members. Any candidate receiving fewer than 30 votes will be removed from the first round. On Thursday will be the second round, in which the candidate with the least votes drops out.
The remaining candidates that are not popular will be removed by subsequent rounds of voting. This will leave only two left. After this, 180,000 Conservative Party members in the UK can vote for the candidate they like.
Johnson resigned last week following the resignation of dozens high ranking officials in protest at his scandal-plagued government. His departure has generated intense speculation as to his replacement. However, some of the most well-known names in the field, such as Ben Wallace (Defense Secretary) and Sajid Javid (ex-health minister), did not make it onto the final slate. Despite leading in one poll of voter favorites, Wallace announced on Sunday he would not be competing for the role, while Javid dropped out of the race minutes before Tuesday’s deadline.
Sunak and Mordaunt currently lead the pack of remaining candidates according to the bookmakers.
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