Markus Andrews

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss will battle it out over the next six weeks to be the UK’s next prime minister after making it to the final stage of the Conservative leadership contest.The former chancellor and the foreign secretary finished in the top two places after five rounds of voting by Tory MPs, with Penny Mordaunt eliminated after a bitterly fought contest.So what happens next? The final two now switch their focus away from Westminster and begin charming Tory members, who have the final say on who replaces Boris Johnson at No 10 in early September.The first chance for Sunak and Truss to make their pitch to Tory members – and the wider public – comes on Monday evening at 9pm when they face each other on a BBC debate.The two contenders will then face each other at 12 Tory hustings debates around the country, viewable on the party website, starting on 28 July in Leeds and finishing on 31 August in London.RecommendedBoth candidates have also agreed to feature in a Sky News debate on 4 August, with the possibility of more TV hustings events in the weeks ahead.Although the whole process doesn’t come to an end until early September, many of the estimated 160,000 Tory members who get to decide on the next PM could make their minds up soon.Ballot papers will begin landing on Tory members’ doorsteps as soon as 1 August, with the party telling paid-up supporters to expect them between 1 and 5 August.And members who wish to vote online will receive an email on 2 August containing the two unique security codes allowing them to cast their ballot digitally.Intriguingly, members will be able to change their mind during the contest. They can send both a physical ballot and an online ballot, with the most recent one being counted.Tory members then have until 5pm on 2 September to send their ballot to the party, with the final result announced on 5 September.Boris Johnson would be expected to head to Buckingham Palace for formalities with the Queen on 6 September, before either Sunak or Truss takes over the same day. Both have ruled out an early general election.The battle is set to expose a clear rift between Truss’s right-wing agenda of immediate tax cuts and confrontation with the EU, and Sunak’s more cautious approach avoiding “fairytale” tax giveaways.Sunak, the frontrunner throughout the parliamentary leg of the contest, received 137 votes in the final round of voting. Truss won 113 votes, narrowly pushing Mordaunt into third place on 105.Bookmakers have made Truss the favourite to win the contest in the country, after polling of Tory members pointed to her being favoured over Sunak.The most recent ConservativeHome online survey of the Tory grassroots also suggested that Truss would beat Sunak in a head-to-contest decided by members.RecommendedHowever, Sunak set out his pitch to members in a brief video clip after Wednesday’s results. He claimed that he is “the only candidate” who can beat Keir Starmer at the next general election.Team Sunak has pointed to polling which suggest he is more popular with the wider public and has the best chance of beating a resurgent Labour Party.All Tory hustings events:28 July: Leeds1 August: Exeter3 August: Cardiff5 August: Eastbourne9 August: Darlington11 August: Cheltenham16 August: Perth17 August: Northern Ireland19 August: Manchester23 August: Birmingham25 August: Norwich31 August: London More

The Conservative party is facing a brutal summer of vicious infighting, as Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss slug it out for the keys to 10 Downing Street in what is expected to be the most tightly-fought leadership contest in decades.There were appeals for the two contenders to succeed Boris Johnson to avoid “blue on blue” attacks on one another, amid Tory fears that a bloody battle will undermine efforts to restore public trust in the party. The new prime minister will be chosen by an estimated 160,000 Conservative members, prompting calls for an immediate election after the new Tory leader is installed on 5 September to give all voters a say on who runs Britain.Labour’s Conor McGinn said Tory members were being offered “two continuity candidates… both stooges of the Johnson administration whose fingerprints are all over the state the country finds itself in today”.Mr Sunak emerged as Tory MPs’ choice after five rounds of voting at Westminster, scooping 137 votes – 38 per cent of the parliamentary party. RecommendedBut Ms Truss was firm bookies’ favourite after coming from behind to pip Penny Mordaunt at the post on Wednesday. Polls have suggested she holds a comfortable lead over the former chancellor among grassroots Tories, and William Hill quoted odds of 4/7 on her victory, making Mr Sunak the 6/4 outsider.Ms Mordaunt, who had held onto second place behind Mr Sunak through all the previous rounds, slipped behind with 105 votes (29 per cent) to 113 (32 per cent) for Ms Truss, who scooped almost half of the 59 supporters of fellow right-winger Kemi Badenoch, eliminated in the previous round.In a video message following his victory, Mr Sunak said he was the only candidate who can beat Sir Keir Starmer and Labour at the next general election.Declaring himself “humbled” to reach the final two, he said he would offer “a positive message” to “restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite our country”.Ms Truss said: “As prime minister, I would hit the ground running from day one, unite the party and govern in line with Conservative values. I am excited to now take to the country to make the case to the Conservative Party about my bold new economic plan that will cut taxes, grow our economy and unleash the potential of everyone in our United Kingdom.”The party released a schedule of 12 hustings across the UK, starting on 28 July in Leeds and concluding with a 31 August clash in London just three days before voting closes on 3 September.With ballot packs arriving on doorsteps from 1 August, Mr Sunak and Ms Truss will have just days to make an impression on the thousands of Tories who are expected to vote immediately online.But in a quirk of the rules, members who change their minds before the deadline of 3 September can amend their vote by casting another ballot – with only the latest one counting.Mr Sunak and Ms Truss have already kicked chunks out of one another in TV debates, with the foreign secretary accusing the former chancellor of putting the UK on the path to recession and him asking whether she was more embarrassed to be a former Remainer or a former Liberal Democrat. The divisiveness of their contest is likely to be amplified by signals from Mr Johnson that he wants Mr Truss, who remained loyally in his cabinet as dozens of other ministers walked out, to vanquish Mr Sunak, whose resignation triggered the process leading to his removal.In his last Commons appearance to say “hasta la vista, baby” to MPs, the outgoing PM made little secret of his preference, lashing out at Treasury resistance to his investment plans while lauding the foreign policy successes of his administration.The contenders’ next televised encounter will be an hour-long BBC debate on Monday, followed by a Sky News face-off on 4 August. The battle will expose a clear rift within the Tory party between Ms Truss’s right-wing agenda of immediate tax cuts and confrontation with Brussels over the post-Brexit settlement and Mr Sunak’s more cautious approach focusing on sound money and avoiding “fairytale” tax giveaways.As she congratulated her two rivals on their success, Ms Mordaunt made clear that she hopes for a senior role in the administration of whichever of them wins the premiership, saying: “Our mission is not only to deliver on what we promised but to win the fight against Labour at the next general election. I hope to play my part in both.”One Mr Sunak supporter said he was confident party members will recognise the former chancellor as the candidate who appeals to both Leavers and Remainers, and to people living in the south and north.“I’m very confident that the Conservative party will decide that defeating inflation, fiscal responsibility and sound money have to come before tax cuts,” the MP added. “You can’t have tax cuts without defeating inflation.”Stoke-on-Trent North MP Jonathan Gullis, who came out for Ms Truss earlier on Wednesday, said he did so because “despite being a Remainer, she talks toughest on Brexit”.He said voters “want someone who is going to stand up for the country and make the most of Brexit opportunities”, adding: “I have not heard enough of that from Rishi.”Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey demanded an early general election to allow all voters a chance to pass their verdicts on the eventual winner of the Tory contest.“Everyone knows Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are two sides of the same coin,” said Sir Ed. “Both propped up Boris Johnson whilst he lied to the British people and failed to deal with the healthcare crisis and cost of living emergency.”RecommendedUniversity of Sussex politics professor Paul Webb said that the Tory members who are about to pick the next PM are “older, whiter, more male, more affluent, more in favour of low taxes and spending, more socially conservative and more in favour of Brexit” than the electorate as a whole.“The latest opinion polls of Tory members suggest that Truss is likely to prevail against Sunak because she best embodies these attitudes, even though she appears to be less popular with voters,” said Prof Webb. “The Conservative Party has a long track record of successfully doing what it takes to win and retain power, but it might be about to take a big electoral risk.” More

Liz Truss is the favourite to become the next prime minister, ahead of Rishi Sunak, according to bookmakers, after Penny Mordaunt was forced out of the contest.Betfair has put the foreign secretary odds-on at 4/6 to be the next Tory party leader, even though Conservative MPs gave Mr Sunak more support in the ballot to select the final two contenders.The former chancellor is the 6/4 underdog with Betfair.Irish bookmaker Paddy Power priced Ms Truss at 8/15 to be the next leader, marginally ahead of Mr Sunak, on 5/4.William Hill had Ms Truss at 4/7 and Mr Sunak at 6/4.RecommendedA Sunak supporter described the outcome of the final MPs’ ballot as “a really strong result with a clear mandate from MPs” for the former chancellor, whose tally amounted to 38 per cent of the parliamentary party, against 32 per cent for Ms Truss and 29 for Ms Mordaunt.Mr Sunak and Ms Truss will now fight for votes among party members across the UK.Ballot papers will be sent out from 1 August to 160,000 activists, who will choose their new leader – and the prime minister – in a secret ballot, before the result is announced on 5 September.Tory leadership – live: Truss or Sunak to become next PMA poll of 493 Conservative Party members carried out earlier this month for Channel 4 News put Mr Sunak ahead by a narrow margin.But a  YouGov poll earlier this week, before the fourth ballot of MPs, showed he would be less popular than Ms Mordaunt, Ms Truss and Kemi Badenoch.The final two contenders will face each other in a televised BBC debate on Monday at 9pm.They will then do battle at hustings debates twice a week around the UK until September.Ms Mordaunt congratulated her two rivals, saying: “I pay tribute to anyone who puts themselves forward for such a demanding role.”Politics isn’t easy. It can be a divisive and difficult place.Recommended”We must all now work together to unify our party and focus on the job that needs to be done.” More

Dominic Cummings has mocked hardline Conservative Brexiteers for backing “truly useless Remainer” Liz Truss after she made into the final leadership run-off with Rishi Sunak.The foreign secretary is now the bookies’ favourite to be Britain’s next prime minister after rival Penny Mordaunt was eliminated in the final round of voting by the party’s MPs.The former No 10 strategist, who masterminded the Leave campaign, scoffed at the European Research Group (ERG) for getting behind Truss in her surge past Mordaunt.“Totally on-brand for ERG to back a truly useless Remainer who did nothing in govt except gabble with hacks cos she’s reassuringly mad behind the eyes,” Cummings tweeted.Boris Johnson’s ex-adviser turned nemisis also claimed the PM quietly supported Truss’ campaign because he “knows she’s mad and thinks she’ll blow and he can make a comeback”.Cummings said his former boss’s immediate priority was stopping Sunak. But he added: “He knows Truss is mad as a box of snakes and is thinking, ‘There’s a chance she blows, there’s another contest and I can return’.”RecommendedCummings said he had given the foreign secretary the nickname “human handgrenade” because she “caused chaos rather instead of getting things done”.He also mocked Truss’ celebratory tweet after the final round of parliamentary results when she said: “I’m ready to hit the ground from day one.”Cummings responded: “Sure would ‘hit the ground’ and she wouldn’t bounce much. Splat, for Tories and UK.”The foreign secretary later deleted the tweet and replaced it with the message: “I’m ready to hit the ground running from day one.”After leading the race to succeed from the start, Rishi Sunak held onto his first place with 137 MPs’ votes when the final round was announced on Wednesday afternoon.But Ms Mordaunt, second in the four previous rounds of voting, was dramatically overtaken at the last minute by Ms Truss, who took 113 votes to the trade minister’s 105.The group of 40 to 50 MPs in the ERG had been split on which Tory candidate to back. But many are believed to have gone to the foreign secretary after ardent Brexiteer Suella Braverman was defeated at an earlier round in the race.Stoke MP Jonathan Gullis, who came out for Truss earlier on Wednesday, said he did so because “despite being a Remainer, she talks toughest on Brexit”. The most recent ConservativeHome online survey of the Tory grassroots suggested that Truss would beat Sunak in a head-to-contest contest decided by members.However, Sunak set out his pitch to members in a brief video clip claiming that he is “the only candidate” who can beat Keir Starmer and Labour at the next general election.Meanwhile, the former chancellor’s allies have rejected the idea that his camp “lent” or reallocated votes other candidates.There have been claims by Mordant’s allies that votes were lent to Truss because Sunak preferred the idea of facing her in the run-off.“We’ve been trying to maximise the vote for Rishi Sunak,” Tory MP John Glen told the BBC. And Tory MP Gavin Williamson – asked by reporters if he had helped “lend” votes to others – said: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”RecommendedA source in the Sunak camp said accusations that his team had encouraged supporters to vote tactically to ensure a run-off with Ms Truss were “absolutely not true”.“It’s a very strong lead over the second-placed candidate, Liz. I think we’re content with that. Everybody who wanted to see Rishi through voted for him, there was a significant rise in our vote compared with yesterday.” More

Fans of Liz Truss think she is the new Iron Lady.Britain’s foreign secretary is one of the two final contenders to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative Party leader and prime minister. Some 180,000 party members will be asked to choose either Truss or former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, with the winner set to be announced Sept. 5.If Truss wins, she would become Britain’s third female prime minister. She has forged her image in homage to the first, Margaret Thatcher. Truss has posed in a British Army tank in Eastern Europe, evoking an image of Thatcher during the Cold War. In a televised leadership debate this week, Britain’s top diplomat sported a pussy-bow blouse eerily similar to one the late prime minister used to wear.Truss, 46, is a favorite among many Conservatives, who revere Thatcher above all other leaders. Critics say it’s an empty homage and believe Truss lacks the gravitas to lead the country amid economic turbulence and a European war.RecommendedAs foreign secretary, Truss has been front and center in Britain’s support for Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia over the invasion of its neighbor. She also has figured prominently in the U.K.’s feud with the European Union over post-Brexit trade arrangements. Her pugnacious approach — along with her promises to slash taxes and boost defense spending — have made her the favorite of the party’s strongly euroskeptic right wing.Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Truss said she was “the only person who can deliver the change we need on the economy — in line with true Conservative principles — and the only person capable of stepping up and leading the response to Ukraine and the increased security threat that the free world faces.”But opponents criticize her as a dogmatist and a wooden public speaker, and note that she has not always been a true-blue Tory. Born in Oxford in 1975, Truss is the daughter of a math professor and a nurse who took her on anti-nuclear and anti-Thatcher protests as a child, where she recalled shouting: “Maggie, Maggie, Maggie — out, out out!” Truss attended a public high school in Leeds, northern England, and then studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University, where she briefly belonged to the centrist Liberal Democrats and called for the abolition of the monarchy.She worked as an economist for energy giant Shell and telecommunications firm Cable and Wireless, and for a right-of-center think tank while becoming involved in Conservative politics and espousing free-market Thatcherite views. She ran unsuccessfully for Parliament twice before being elected to represent the eastern England seat of Southwest Norfolk in 2010.Truss is married to Hugh O’Leary, with whom she has two teenage daughters.In Britain’s 2016 referendum on whether to leave the European Union, Truss backed the losing “remain” side. But she has served in Johnson’s staunchly pro-Brexit government as trade secretary and then foreign secretary, and has won the support of the Conservative Party’s most fervent Brexiteers.Her record as foreign secretary has drawn mixed reviews. Many praise her firm response to the invasion of Ukraine, and she secured the release of two British nationals jailed in Iran where her predecessors had failed. But EU leaders and officials hoping she would bring a softer tone to the U.K.’s relations with the bloc have been disappointed.Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, says the fact that euroskeptics adore Truss, while suspecting Sunak of pro-EU views — despite that fact that he backed “leave” in the referendum — shows the importance of image over substance in politics. “His image doesn’t fit that of a Brexiteer whereas hers does,” Bale said. “There’s a kind of presumption that if you’re a bit of a smoothiechops who moves easily in international circles you must be a remainer, and if you’re someone who tells it like it is to Johnny Foreigner then you’re obviously a (true) Brexiteer.”Recommended___Follow all of AP’s coverage of British politics at https://apnews.com/hub/boris-johnson More

Conservative MPs have voted in the fifth round of their leadership contest, eliminating Penny Mordaunt from the race and setting the stage for a head-to-head showdown between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. Former chancellor Rishi Sunak topped the ballot again with the backing of 118 MPs, while Liz Truss leapfrogged her rival, apparently benefiting from transfers from a previously eliminated candidat, right-winger Kemi Badenoch.The table after the fifth round looks like this:Rishi Sunak – 137Liz Truss – 113RecommendedThe eliminated candidate is:Penny Mordaunt – 105Ms Mordaunt picked up a further 13 votes after the elimination of Ms Badenoch, but it was not enough to maintain her fourth-round lead over Ms Truss, who picked up an extra 27 votes. Many of the votes went to Mr Sunak, who picked up an extra 19 MP supporters. This was the last round in which only MPs will take part: now there are just two candidates, they will spend the summer campaigning, and will be put to the rank-and-file Tory membership.Whoever wins that contest, the winner of which will be announced in September, will become the new leader of the Conservative party, and will replace Boris Johnson as prime minister. More

Rishi Sunak was seen as Boris Johnson’s natural heir, until he turned on the prime minister who put him in charge of Britain’s economy.The former Treasury chief, who quit earlier this month after questioning Johnson’s competence and ethics, is one of the t wo final contenders to replace Johnson as Conservative Party leader and prime minister — but he faces fierce opposition from Johnson and his allies, who consider him a turncoat.Either Sunak or Liz Truss, who has led the U.K.’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as foreign secretary, will be chosen in a ballot of 180,000 Conservative members to be the party’s new leader. The winner will be announced Sept. 5 and will automatically become Britain’s new prime minister.At 42, Sunak would be the youngest prime minister for more than 200 years and the country’s first South Asian leader.Sunak was born in Southampton, on England’s south coast, in 1980 to Indian parents who were both born in East Africa. He grew up in a middle-class family, his father a family doctor and his mother a pharmacist. He has described how his parents saved to pay for a private education, and he attended Winchester College, one of Britain’s toniest and most expensive boarding schools.RecommendedThere, he mingled with the elite. Rivals recently dug up a clip from a 2001 TV documentary about the class system in which the 21-year-old Sunak said he had “friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper class, I have friends who are, you know, working class — well, not working class.”After high school Sunak studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University — the degree of choice for future prime ministers — then got an MBA at Stanford University.He worked for the investment bank Goldman Sachs and as a hedge fund manager and lived in the U.S., where he met his wife, Akshata Murty. They have two daughters.Returning to Britain, Sunak was elected to Parliament for the safe Tory seat of Richmond, in Yorkshire, in 2015 and served in several junior ministerial posts before being appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer by Johnson early in 2020, just before the pandemic hit.An instinctive low-tax politician who idolizes former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, he nonetheless forked out billions in government money to keep people and businesses afloat during the pandemic. His furlough program, which paid the salaries of millions of workers when they were temporarily laid off, made him the most popular member of the government — a status “Dishy Rishi” burnished with slick social media messages that stressed his own brand more than the government’s.Sunak’s sure-footedness has wobbled over the years. Critics said a campaign to get people to eat in restaurants after lockdown restrictions were eased in the summer of 2020 contributed to another wave of COVID-19.He also has faced questions about his wealth and finances. His wife is the daughter of the billionaire founder of Indian tech giant Infosys, and the couple is worth 730 million pounds ($877 million), according to the Sunday Times Rich list. In April it emerged that Murty did not pay U.K. tax on her overseas income. The status was legal but it looked bad at a time when Sunak was raising the taxes of millions of Britons. Sunak also was criticized for holding onto his American Green Card — which signifies an intent to settle in the U.S. — for two years after he became Britain’s finance minister. Sunak was cleared of wrongdoing, but the revelations still hurt. Sunak also was fined by police, along with Johnson and some 50 others, for attending a party in the prime minister’s office in 2020 that broke coronavirus lockdown rules. He said he had attended inadvertently and briefly.Sunak’s leadership campaign has been the most professional of any contender, from a slick launch video to a coterie of aides to marshal support.He has depicted himself as the candidate of grown-up decisions and fiscal probity, calling rivals’ tax-cutting plans reckless and vowing to get inflation under control. He frequently mentions his political idol, Thatcher, but has nonetheless been cast by rivals as a left-wing, tax-and-spend politician, and has been subjected to mudslinging by Johnson’s allies.Sunak is a popular candidate among Tory lawmakers, but now must win over the wider party, where his slick image could be an asset, or a liability.Steven Fielding, professor of political history at the University of Nottingham, says Sunak “has got the demeanor of a daytime chat show host.”“He’s plausible, he’s glib,” Fielding said. “He’s very like (former Prime Minister) David Cameron in that regard. He’s plausible, and yet somehow you think you’re being lied to.”Recommended___Follow all of AP’s coverage of British politics at https://apnews.com/hub/boris-johnson More

Britain is likely to face more wildfires because of climate change and “must learn to live with extreme events”, said Cabinet Office minister Kit Malthouse.But he admitted that a plan to make the country more resilience to the climate crisis and other emergencies would be delayed until the new prime minister is installed at No 10.Labour claimed the government had gone “missing while Britain burns” during the recent heatwave which saw record temperatures and dozens of homes destroyed in wildfires.Deputy leader Angela Rayner accused ministers of dragging their feet – pointing out that they were yet to produce a national resilience strategy despite a consultation finishing in September.“It’s already been 10 months – why should British people be forced to wait a whole year?” said Ms Rayner. “It’s the primary duty of any government to keep the country safe.”RecommendedThe Labour frontbencher added: “It has literally taken the country to go up in flames for the minister to turn his focus on this emergency … Isn’t it the truth that the prime minister and his entire government have gone missing while Britain burned?”Mr Malthouse denied failing to prepare for the crisis. He told the Commons the government recognised that “we are likely to experience more of these incidents and that we should not under-estimate their speed, scope and severity”.He added: “Britain may be unaccustomed to such high temperatures but the UK, along with our European neighbours, must learn to live with extreme events such as these … We will continue to face acute events driven by climate change.”But the Cabinet Office minister said the national resilience strategy would have to wait until the autumn – promising it would be launched at “earliest possible opportunity by the incoming administration”.Mr Malthouse said the government was “at the forefront of international efforts to reach net zero” – and pointed out that the environment department has a national adaptation programme to help manage climate change.He also defended Boris Johnson, who was accused “clocking off” after it was confirmed he will miss a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee at the weekend.Ms Rayner said the was “no Churchill – he has been missing in action. Where was he when Cobra was called last weekend?”But Mr Malthouse said the prime minister had “monitored our work and has been specifically briefed on a number of occasions”.The Labour deputy leader also warned that the Tory leadership contenders vying to succeed Mr Johnson “will leave us vulnerable” to climate change-caused disasters.Rishi Sunak, who vowed to uphold the ban on onshore wind farms on Wednesday, has warned that if progress on the plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 is “too hard and too fast” it would lose public support.Foreign secretary Liz Truss has suggested she wanted to look again at policies aimed at achieving net zero, vowing to stop the green levies which help pay for investment in renewable energy.Meanwhile, Labour MP Ian Lavery criticised the “paltry” 2 per cent pay increase proposed for firefighters, adding: “It is time we stopped clapping the great members of fire and rescue services, and start paying.”But Mr Malthouse said the pay review was “not within control of the government”, and involved local authorities who administered fire services – including councils run by Labour.RecommendedEarlier on Wednesday, Mr Johnson appeared to reject a call by Tory MP Caroline Nokes to help firefighters with a ban on disposable barbeques and Chinese sky lanterns.London’s Fire Commissioner Andy Roe had called for an urgent ban on disposable barbecues, as firefighters continue to feel the effects of unprecedented heatwave.“The key thing is for people to behave responsibly with these things,” the prime minister said at PMQs. “It’s clearly insane to take a disposable barbeque onto dry grass.” More