Rishi Sunak leads the Conservative race to succeed Boris Johnson

With 115 votes, Sunak is ahead of International Trade Secretary Penny Mordaunt, who got 82 votes, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, with 71 votes, who are rivals to enter the final election.

In fourth place, with 58 votes, was former Equality Secretary Kemi Badenoch, while Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, only got 31 votes, withdrawing from the race.

Next Tuesday and Wednesday the last rounds will be held, the two candidates that are selected will compete for the votes of 200,000 party members in a vote by mail, by September 5 the person who will take the position of Boris Johnson will be announced.

Rishi Sunak

He graduated from Winchester College and Lincoln College at the University of Oxford, studied philosophy, politics, and economics, and earned an MBA from Stanford University in California.

A member of the Conservative party, he was a Member of Parliament for Richmond in Yorkshire and from 2018-219 he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Housing, Communities and Government.

In the Government of Boris Johnson, in 2019, he was appointed Chief Secretary of the Treasury and from February 13, 2020 to 2022 he was head of the Treasury.

He is known for his fiscal conservatism and for opposing “excessive” public spending to support the nation’s economy during the Covid-19 pandemic and the proposed carbon tax to reduce CO2 emissions.

Sunak was an ally of Johnson and accompanied him during the party scandals amid the restrictive measures by Covid-19, but disagreements with the prime minister deteriorated relations that led to Sunak being one of the ministers who resigned last 8 July as a measure of pressure for Boris Johnson to hand over the post.

Penny Mordaunt

Her name is Penelope Mary Mordaunt. She studied philosophy at the University of Reading and was the first member of her family to attend the university, where she was active in student politics. Coming out of university she was the Conservative Party’s youth leader and head of broadcasting.

Among the most important positions she has held are that of Minister of State for Trade Policy, Member of Parliament representing Portsmouth North. She was Secretary of State for International Development in Theresa May’s Cabinet for two years, as well as Secretary of State for Defense in 2019, becoming the first woman to hold the position.

Just 85 days after being appointed Defense Secretary, she was ousted by new Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In 2020 she returned to the Government and in 2021 she was appointed Minister of State for Trade Policy.

She is known for having participated in the television program Splash and according to the polls she is the favorite among conservatives, despite having been criticized in the party for her opinions on gender, publicly supporting the rights of trans people.

He assures that the current leadership must change to revolve less around a leader “and much more around the ship”.

Liz Truss

He graduated from Oxford University in 1996 and later joined the Conservative Party. In 2010 she became a Member of Parliament, she served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Child Care and Education for two years.

She was a member of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Cabinet as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and although she supported the campaign that hoped the United Kingdom would stay within the European Union, after the results she supported Brexit.

In the Government of Theresa May she was appointed Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, in 2017 she was appointed Chief Secretary of the Treasury.

She supported Boris Johnson to become leader of the Conservatives, after his assumption as Prime Minister she was appointed Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade, later becoming Minister for Women and Equality and then Minister for Foreign Relations. Exteriors.

Among other positions, she was the UK Government’s chief negotiator with the European Union and UK President of the EU-UK Association Council on 19 December 2021.

She is known for being a hard-line Foreign Minister and being against raising taxes, social security and for proposing to place the debt for the Covid-19 in the long term, in addition to promoting greater spending on defense and trade agreements. .

Kemi Badenoch

A graduate of the University of Sussex and the University of London in law, she became a member of the Conservative Party and later a member of the London Assembly.

In 2017 she was elected to the House of Commons, during the Government of Boris Johnson she was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, Secretary of the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equality.

In 2021 she was Minister of State for Equality and Minister of State for Local Government, Faith and Communities, she also resigned along with the other ministers in July to later run to replace Johnson in the Conservative Party leadership elections.

He has criticized the ‘critical theory of race’ and has been at the forefront of the demands of young people and minorities, he is committed to creating a micro-state and lowering taxes, with the aim of promoting “growth and productivity” with strict discipline in public spending.

With information from Reuters and local media