the ‘tory’ race starts today

The Conservative Party has made public the regulations and the calendar that will culminate the September 5 with the election of the successor of Boris Johnson as Leader tory and, consequently, as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

In order to speed up the primaries to remove him from power, the so-called 1922 Committee, which brings together the conservative parliamentary group, has agreed on new electoral rules, after renewing its own executive.

For reduce the number of candidateswhich is already approaching ten, the committee, chaired by Graham Brady, has decided that the candidates to succeed Johnson will need the support of at least 20 deputies Tories, of the 8 required so far.

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“The nominations open and close this Tuesday. We will have the first vote on Wednesday and there will probably be a second vote on Thursday,” Graham Brady explained.

Graham has indicated that the objective is to achieve a “balance” between a “reasonable speed” of the process before the summer break and “an adequate debate within the party”.

The bases choose between two

The 1922 Committee plans to hold two knockout rounds this week -Wednesday and Thursday- and I would organize more next week if necessary. The intention is to have two finalists before the parliamentary summer recess, which begins on July 21, Brady said.

The two candidates with the most votes by the deputies would then undergo a election by mail among the members ofThe ruling party -some 200,000, according to 2021 data-, after an electoral campaign in August, indicated the head of the parliamentarians Tories.

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This means that barely 0.30% of the 67.2 million inhabitants of the United Kingdom will choose the future prime minister, unless in the coming months the winner calls an early general election, as Labor is already calling for. Currently, they are planned for 2024.

Once the Conservative leader is revealed on September 5, the process for him to be appointed Prime Minister can be organized within 24 hours and requires going to Buckingham Palace to be invested by Queen Elizabeth II of England.

Sunak the favorite

The term of presentation of candidacies for the primary elections of the Conservative Party, with the mandatory nominations, begins and ends this Tuesday.

At least 11 candidates have applied to succeed Johnson, including the former economy minister during the pandemic, Rishi Sunak, and the still foreign minister, Liz Truss.

While Sunak already has 36 nominations, other colleagues are expected to fall by the wayside by not bringing them together.

Although the former chancellor of the Exchequer is the bookmakers favoritea survey among the conservative bases shows in the first place Penny Mordaunt, currently Secretary of State for Commerce who was previously Minister of Defense in the Executive tory by Theresa May.

Members also support the relatively unknown Kemi Badenoch, Secretary of State for Equality, and Sunak in third place, while the last positions are occupied by Sajid Javid – health minister whose resignation on Tuesday precipitated Johnson’s downfall; Grant Shapps, transport minister; and the Minister of the Interior, Pritti Patel -who has not yet confirmed if he will apply-.

In the midst of the leadership race, which will focus on the next fiscal policy, Johnson clarified that he will not publicly endorse any of the candidates, in order to “not harm” their chances of being elected.

The 58-year-old politician made these statements during an act in London, when he also said he was “determined” to fulfill the mandate entrusted to him in the 2019 general elections, which he won by an absolute majority, in his last weeks at the head of the Government.

However, Labor opposition leader Keir Starmer has threatened to table a motion of censure in the House of Commons to force his immediate departure, while asking the new leader to call a general election.