Former Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss are the two remaining candidates fighting for leadership of the Conservative Party in Britain.

Now the party chooses

On the same day that 200,000 Conservatives began electing a new party leader to replace Boris Johnson, Truss received support from Commerce Secretary Penny Mordaunt, who was knocked out in the last round of parliamentary caucus voting.

Sunak has by far the most supporters in the parliamentary group, but Truss’s popularity is rising, and this latest vote was completely different: Now it’s the party members who will vote. And it’s not just about who will be the leader of the party: the winner will also take over as prime minister.

Shortly before, he had the support of the Minister of Finance Nadhim Zahawi. From before, he was backed by Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, former Northern Ireland Minister Brandon Lewis and centrist politician Tom Tugendhat.

Tax increase is important

His rival, Rishi Sunak, who unlike Truss believed that a tax increase was necessary, tried to fight back with plans for future tax cuts. Truss believes taxes should be cut now to deal with Britain’s worst recession in generations.

During a farm visit on Monday, Truss, a former EU supporter turned staunch supporter of Brexit, pledged to free the country’s farmers from EU regulations. He also pledged to fix the labor shortage on the country’s farms, meaning that British farmers must now allow ripe fruit to rot in the fields and must slaughter healthy pigs.

The labor shortage is a consequence of the withdrawal from the EU and new, stricter rules on immigration.

Very different candidate

The competition is now between two very different candidates.

Secretary of State Liz Truss was among the last to launch her candidacy. He has gained support among those in the party who are still loyal to Boris Johnson. He is described as the favorite to take over the baton as party leader and prime minister. Truss wanted lower taxes and he wanted to shrink the state.

Rishi Sunak was finance minister until he resigned in protest against Boris Johnson on July 6, and was accused of lying against the center of the Conservative party. He received a lot of praise during the pandemic for his handling of aid schemes, but his popularity has declined recently.