Boris Johnson’s succession will be decided between former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Liz Truss

The new prime minister who will replace Boris Johnson will be the former finance minister, Rishi Sunak or the current British chancellor, Liz Truss.

This was decided on Wednesday in last vote for parliamentary leadership, where Sunak prevailed with 137 votes followed by Liz Truss with 113 votes. Penny Mordaunt, the Minister of Commerce and Brexitier.

With Boris who greets with a very Spanish “Hasta la vista, baby”, in his last parliamentary question and under a great ovation, the electoral battle that will begin between the conservatives to elect the leader and the premier will be brutal.

It will feature two types of Tory politics to choose from: a more compassionate Keynesianism by Rishi Sunak, who showed it in the Covid epidemic with subsidies and tax hikes, and a Chancellor’s hard Brexit, which was pro-European and recycled itself. to be part of Boris Johnson’s cabinet and an unconditional one, which proposes to reduce taxes, as the party extremists want.

In the last election for leadership in 2019, there were around 160,000 Toris members who should have voted, although this is expected to have increased.

Therefore, conservative members make up about 0.30% of the population. Research from the Mile End Institute, published in Guardian, says 44% of members are over 65. About 97% are white and 54% live in London and the South.

It is they who will choose the successor, without the need to hold general elections. If Boris Johnson hadn’t won the confidence vote this Monday, the election would have been immediate.

Penny Mordaunt thanked her supporters after being knocked out of the leadership race.

In a short tweet, he said: “Thank you all for your hard work. Let’s move forward together.”

war of ideas

Results show the battle of ideas within conservatives: lower inflation, as proposed Rishi Sunak, billionaire, Stanford graduate, or lower taxes, as proposed Truss, who doesn’t have the slightest economic experience.

A dividing line that can generate unexpected early political elections.

The next campaign will be dirty and full of ambushes. Not all Tories are willing to elect a former billionaire minister of Indian origin, educated in California, who created the crisis that brought down Boris Johnson.

If any of the candidates deviate from what they call Tory political traditions, there should be an immediate election.

The results of the final round of parliamentary votes in the Tory leadership elections were announced by the president of 1922, Sir Graham Brady.

Penny Mordaunt: 105 (13 votes more than Tuesday). Rishi Sunak: 137 (19 more votes). Liz Truss: 113 (over 27 votes) Penny Mordaunt has been eliminated, which means that Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak will go head-to-head with the vote of Party members.

The Tory Leadership Challengers posed for a photo before the contest was reduced to two candidates. Despite allegations of “dirty tricks” during the campaign, there were no signs of tension as the last three posed in committee room 14, where the results were announced.

the final campaign

The campaign for the ultimate leader has already begun. Sunak has posted a video in which he claims he is “the only candidate” who can beat Sir Keir Starmer, the Labor leader, and calls on his site Ready4Rishi.com to “unite the country.” He asked to rebuild the economy of the kingdom, after thanking the votes.

But there are already dramatic voices in the House of Commons. If Rishi Sunak wins, he will have to reconfirm his mandate in the general election, second the far-right conservatives, who don’t want it.

Liz Truss published a document thanking everyone and greeting the other candidates. She is not the most intellectually respected.

“I would also like to pay tribute to all the candidates who have defended the leadership. Each of them has contributed enormously to the Conservative Party and public life. I am thrilled to travel to the country now to bring the case to the Conservative Party on my bold new business plan, which will cut taxes, grow our economy and unlock the potential of everyone in our UK. “

“As prime minister, I would start working from day one, join the party and govern according to conservative values,” he said.

“I am incredibly proud to be a part of the Conservative and Unionist party and am thrilled to spend the next few weeks showing all of our brilliant members exactly why I am the right person to lead it and our great nation.”

the polls

Equality minister, former banker Kemi Badenoch, was eliminated from the leadership race after receiving the fewest votes.

A YouGov poll of conservative members, released ahead of Tuesday’s vote, showed former Nigerian-born banker Badenoch would beat any of his rivals in a heads-up final. It is necessary to see who is accompanied by the votes of those who follow her. He did not give voting instructions.

The same poll also suggested that Rishi Sunak would have a hard time gaining Tory membership.

“See you later Baby”

Boris Johnson said goodbye to his MPs, before the break in the House of Commons. When they return, there will be another prime minister. The only one who did not applaud him was his predecessor, Theresa May, who forced her to resign, and remained with her arms crossed.

The Prime Minister was delighted, as in the days when he ran the Oxford Public Speaking Club.

“I want to use the last few seconds to give some advice to my successor, whoever he is. Number one: stay close to the Americans. Defend the Ukrainians, defend freedom and democracy everywhere ”.

This was Boris Johnson’s last recommendation, which he left due to his scandals, in his Farewell to the House of Commons.

Paris, correspondent

CB