On Monday, Tom Tugendhat dropped out of the race for leadership of the Conservative Party in Great Britain. On Tuesday, Kemi Badenoch followed suit.
Today, Penny Mordaunt, secretary of state at the Department of Commerce, also stepped out.
Rishi Sunak got 137 votes in the party grouping in Parliament, while Liz Truss got 113 votes. Mordaunt received 105 votes, and with it dropped out of the race.
Very different candidate
The competition is now between two different candidates.
Secretary of State Liz Truss was among the last to launch her candidacy. He is gaining support among those in the party still loyal to Boris Johnson. He has been described as the favorite to take over as party leader and prime minister. Truss wanted lower taxes and he wanted to shrink the country.
Rishi Sunak was finance minister until he resigned in protest against Boris Johnson on July 6, and is considered to be in the middle of the Conservative party. He received a lot of praise during the pandemic for his handling of the aid scheme, but his popularity has been on the decline recently.
Sunak is wealthy, and questions have been raised about the family’s vast wealth and possible tax planning. Sunak is skeptical of cutting taxes too soon, even though it is a long-term plan.
Winners will be announced in September
Now ready for the election campaign, where both candidates travel the country and the coast to collect the votes of 160,000 members of the conservative party.
It is they who ultimately decide who will be the new party leader in the postal primaries.
As well as being party leader, whoever emerges victorious will also become prime minister after Boris Johnson.
He announced in early July that he would step down as soon as the party chose a replacement.
The results of the primary will be announced on September 5, and the next day the new British Prime Minister will move to Downing Street.
Thank you for your support
Graduate Penny Mordaunt thanked all her supporters on Twitter after the results.
– Thanks to everyone for their hard work. We are moving forward together, wrote Mordaunt.
After today’s result, the party achieved its goal of preparing both finalists before Parliament goes on summer break on Thursday.
Underpants are a favorite
Sunak had been the favorite for the leadership post recently but that has changed now, Sky News reported yesterday.
Liz Truss was later presented as a new favourite.
Yesterday’s Ladbrokes Stakes had Truss as favourites, with Sunak second and Mordaunt third.
After today’s Mordaunt results, the current prediction is correct.
Sunak and Truss will meet for a TV debate on the BBC at 10pm Norwegian time on Monday.
Opinion polls also show Sunak battling the two Trusses in a straight duel, according to Sky News.
Sunak is the favorite to be either of the final two candidates, but opinion polls say he will lose.
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