who are Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, the two candidates to succeed Boris Johnson?

They are only two to claim the seat of Boris Johnson. The former British Prime Minister was forced to resign from the head of the Conservative Party in early July, after sixty departures from the government. Foreign Minister Liz Truss is favored by pollsters to replace him, facing his rival Rishi Sunak. Postal and online voting of some 200,000 party members, which began in early August, ended on Friday. The winner will be announced on Monday September 5 and will take office the following day.

Franceinfo presents the two contenders for Downing Street.

Liz Truss, a seasoned politician, given favorite

• Who is she ? At 47, Liz Truss has a long and sometimes tortuous political career behind her. Coming from a very left-wing family, she first campaigned for the centrist Liberal Democrat party before joining the Conservatives, for whom she became an MP in 2010, in the constituency of South West Norfolk. Since 2012, she has chained positions in ministries, whether in Education, the Environment or Justice, before being Chief Secretary of the Treasury. Loving to fuel the comparison with former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, ultrapopular in the majority, Liz Truss has also experienced setbacks. She almost lost the legislative nomination due to an extramarital affair and was demoted by Theresa May after a difficult passage in Justice.

She could also have paid for her vote against Brexit in 2016. But she became one of its most fervent supporters, negotiating and touting new free trade agreements at the Department for International Trade. Appointed in 2021 as head of British diplomacy – a way for Boris Johnson to control his ambitions – she is intransigent against the European Union on Northern Ireland, and embodies with Boris Johnson the firmness against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

• What does it offer? “Like Boris Johnson, she champions the idea of ​​an elite that needs to be countered and portrays herself as outside the establishment, despite having been in government for eight years,” deciphers for AFP Tim Bale, professor at Queen Mary University of London. During the last debate between her and Rishi Sunak, on August 31, she declared that if she were elected, she would “will concentrate[it] on energy prices for consumers and how to revive the UK economy”.

She has also pledged to cut taxes to spur growth, but has yet to say how she will help Britons cope with rising bills this winter. Other proposals: Liz Truss wants to reverse all the laws inherited from the European Union, preaches deregulation, free trade and invites conservatives to be ambitious.

• What are his chances of winning? Strong. The minister seduced with the enthusiasm of the converts the base of the party in power, these less than 200,000 members, especially old and white men, who decide between the finalists for the succession of Boris Johnson. It is given favorite by the polling institutes.

Rishi Sunak, a wealthy technocrat and former finance minister

• Who is he ? If this grandson of Indian immigrants likes to highlight his childhood as the son of a doctor and pharmacist in Southampton, a port in the south of England, he attended a prestigious private school for boys and then Oxford. He completed his studies at California’s Stanford University, where he met his wife, Akshata Murty, daughter of an Indian multi-billionaire, then worked for the Goldman Sachs bank and investment funds.

In 2015, he was elected MP, parachuted into an easy constituency in Yorkshire, and was immediately considered a potential Prime Minister. Barely five years later, at the age of 39, he acceded to the coveted post of Minister of Finance just before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and gained notoriety by distributing massive aid to the economy.

• What does it offer? accusing Liz Truss of “promise the moon to everyone”, Rishi Sunak highlighted his own record as finance minister during the pandemic, as proof of his ability to overcome crises. During the last debate with his opponent, Rishi Sunak assured that controlling inflation would be his priority, believing that Liz Truss’s tax cut plans were too bold.

• What are his chances of winning? Weak. Rishi Sunak had however had the preference of the deputies during the first rounds. Reputed to be the best speaker, the 42-year-old former finance minister nevertheless then appeared to give lessons, clinging to budgetary orthodoxy in the face of the economic crisis, while changing his mind in the face of criticism. Rishi Sunak is “a bit brittle, he gives the impression of being uncomfortable under pressure”, analysis for AFP John Curtice, political scientist at the University of Strathclyde. He also suffered from his image as a traitor who precipitated the fall of Boris Johnson by leaving the government. While prices are soaring, his lifestyle, with his expensive costumes and his properties, have also made him appear disconnected from a population struggling with a serious economic crisis.