Conservative Minister Penny Mordaunt was the first on Friday to formalize her candidacy to succeed Liz Truss, launching the race in Downing Street for which the hypothesis, there is little unimaginable, of a return of Boris Johnson is reinforced.
In the aftermath of the Prime Minister’s resignation, after only 44 days in office, three names emerged for this blitz within the Conservative Party: the current Minister for Relations with Parliament, Penny Mordaunt; Rishi Sunak, the former finance minister who lost to Liz Truss in early September; and ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“I am a candidate to be the leader of the Conservative Party and your Prime Minister, to unite our country, to carry out our commitments and to win the next legislative elections”, wrote on Twitter Penny Mordaunt, 49, highlighting “the national interest “.
Former charismatic defense minister, she had created the surprise last summer by arriving in third position in the campaign which had followed the resignation of Boris Johnson.
A return of Boris Johnson?
In this incredible political week, the latter also seems to be positioning himself: three months after his resignation due to a succession of scandals, his candidacy is taking shape – and arousing fierce opposition among some – as the deputies reveal who they will support.
Boris Johnson is on vacation in the Caribbean, but according to an ally in Parliament, James Duddridge, “he will be flying back”. “He said: ‘We’re going to do it, I’m ready'”, according to this deputy who exchanged with him on WhatsApp.
Popular and respected with the base of the party, the Minister of Defense, Ben Wallace, has indicated that he leans for his former boss. “There are still several days left, we will see what happens,” he tempered.
According to a YouGov poll, 52% of Britons would be unhappy to see “BoJo” return.
Only 27% want it back, but they are a majority among Conservative voters in 2019, a sign of his continued popularity in the mainstream electorate despite the scandals that led to his downfall.
Social crisis
The suitors are on the hunt for supporters to reach the threshold of 100 sponsorships required, out of 357 deputies, by Monday at the start of the afternoon.
Then, MPs will either have to agree on two names that the 170,000 party members will have to decide by online vote by October 28, or on the name of a single person who would then immediately enter Downing. Street.
According to the Guido Fawkes site, which follows the upheavals of the race very closely, Rishi Sunak is in the lead on Friday evening with 88 sponsorships, ahead of Boris Johnson (63) and Penny Mordaunt (24).
“I am for Rishi,” exclaimed Elaine Stones, a 58-year-old farmer living in the Rishi Sunak constituency, Richmondshire in northern England, to AFP. “He should have had it on the first try. He is honest and reliable. »
The future head of government will be the fifth since the Brexit referendum in 2016 and the third in two months.
He or she will lead a party plagued by divisions facing opposition at the top of the polls, but above all a country plunged into a serious crisis of the cost of living.
Inflation exceeds 10%, the highest in 40 years, in a tense social context in the United Kingdom, where strikes have multiplied in recent months, especially in transport.
Supported by polls which give it an unprecedented lead for a quarter of a century, the Labor opposition has not ceased to demand the immediate holding of early elections, without waiting two years as planned. But the majority, after 12 years in power, refuses to do so and seeks an internal successor.
Accelerated process
Those close to Boris Johnson highlight the legitimacy he derives from his electoral triumph at the end of 2019.
His opponents recall the succession of lies and embarrassing cases of the three years of his mandate, which have left deep traces. Some Tory MPs are even warning they will quit if Johnson returns.
Seen by the Johnson camp as a traitor who hastened his downfall, Rishi Sunak was the preferred candidate of the Conservative MPs last summer, before finally being dismissed in favor of Liz Truss by the members.
Arrived on September 6 at her post, the latter remains at the head of the government pending the appointment of her successor. The third woman to have led the British government, she broke unpopularity records and won the unenviable title of the most ephemeral prime minister that the United Kingdom has ever known.