Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson withdrew from the race in Downing Street on Sunday evening, in a spectacular turn of events a few hours before the closing of candidacies.
While those applications are due to close at 2:00 p.m. Monday, Mr Johnson said in a statement that he had secured the 100 sponsorships needed to stand. But he said, “Over the past few days I’ve come to the sad conclusion that it just wouldn’t be the right thing to do. You cannot govern effectively if you do not have a united party in parliament,” he added.
He says he is convinced that he would have had, if he were a candidate, “a good chance […] to return to Downing Street” and says he is “well placed” to lead his camp during the next legislative elections scheduled for two years.
This withdrawal could pave the way for the appointment of former Finance Minister Risi Sunak on Monday: he is currently the only candidate with the necessary 100 supporters. The other candidate, Minister for Relations with Parliament Penny Mordaunt, is far from it.
During a weekend of intense negotiations, Mr. Sunak, 42, had launched Sunday in the race to succeed Liz Truss, who resigned after only 44 days in power.
“I want to fix our economy, unite our party and act for our country,” he said, announcing his candidacy on Twitter, promising “integrity, professionalism and responsibility”.
Boris Johnson’s camp had claimed all weekend that the 58-year-old former prime minister, who returned from vacation in the Caribbean on Saturday, had also reached 100 supporters, contradicting at least three unofficial counts which gave him Sunday evening between 57 and 76 declared supporters.
“I spoke to Boris Johnson and clearly he will introduce himself,” said one of his relatives, Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg.
The second declared candidate, the Minister for Relations with Parliament Penny Mordaunt, had, according to her entourage, been approached by Boris Johnson who asked her to withdraw in her favor. Ms Mordaunt told the BBC she was a candidate ‘to win’.
Support for Rishi Sunak “is growing hour by hour,” said Dominic Raab, former Deputy Prime Minister of Boris Johnson.
“Guaranteed disaster”
Among his most notable recent supporters, that of former Interior Minister Suella Braverman, influential in the right wing of the party and for years loyal to Boris Johnson.
Even if they do not support him, many Conservative MPs have been careful to profess their affection for Boris Johnson, forced to resign at the beginning of July after an overflow of scandals and lies. This perennial optimist and former Brexit “hero” remains popular with the party base.
But for many, including in his camp, he is too controversial to return to Downing Street. Especially since he is still the subject of a parliamentary inquiry, which is due to start soon, to establish whether he lied to parliament about the “partygate” these illegal parties in Downing Street during the anti-Covid confinement.
“It would be a guaranteed disaster,” Steve Baker, minister for Northern Ireland, said on Sunday, predicting that a Johnson government would implode within months.
Rishi Sunak, guardian of budgetary orthodoxy and workaholic, appears to them as a better choice as the country goes through a serious economic and social crisis, further aggravated by the calamitous mistakes of Liz Truss which destabilized the markets and caused the book.
Mr. Sunak had regularly warned this summer against the economic plan of Liz Truss. He had not convinced the militants of the party, who had the last word and had elected her.
The campaign to replace her will only last a few days at best.
If Penny Mordaunt does not stand down and reach 100 endorsements, Tory MPs will cast a tentative vote on Monday afternoon to tell the party base who their favorite is.
Members will then be able to vote online until October 28. The indicative vote of the deputies did not exist this summer, when the approximately 140,000 voters of the party had elected Liz Truss, while the deputies preferred Rishi Sunak to him.
The next Conservative prime minister will be the third in two months, and the fifth since 2016.