Rishi Sunak leads second round with 101 votes, says 'judge on my record, not my wealth'
Sunak received 101 votes, followed by junior trade minister and bookies' favourite Penny Mordaunt with 83 votes and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss with 64 votes. Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, was defeated with 27 votes. Kemi Badenoch earned 49 votes, while Tom Tugendhat received 32 votes.
FollowFormer Chancellor Rishi Sunak maintained his lead in the UK prime ministerial election on Thursday, receiving 101 votes in the second round of voting to succeed Boris Johnson as Conservative Party leader.
Sunak received 101 votes, followed by junior trade minister and bookies' favourite Penny Mordaunt with 83 votes and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss with 64 votes. Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, was defeated with 27 votes. Kemi Badenoch earned 49 votes, while Tom Tugendhat received 32 votes.
He denied that he was too wealthy to lead the country amid an economic slump, claiming he had the expertise to face difficult situations. Sunak, the former finance minister whose resignation helped bring Johnson's administration down, said he didn't evaluate individuals by their money accounts, but by their character, and hoped others would do the same.
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Sunak also received the most votes from Conservative legislators in the first round of voting on Wednesday. Sunak, whose departure as finance minister last week aided Johnson's resignation, received support from 88 of the party's 358 MPs, with Penny Mordaunt coming in second with 67 votes and Liz Truss coming in third with 50.
Nadhim Zahawi, who replaced Sunak as finance minister last week, and former foreign minister Jeremy Hunt were both defeated after failing to receive the needed minimum of 30 votes.
Sunak, who is also Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy's son-in-law, told the BBC after the first round that he is pleased with the outcome.
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Meanwhile, the Conservative Party members who will have the last word are rallying around Penny Mordaunt.
The deadline for narrowing the shortlist to just two candidates has been set by the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers as July 21. The last two candidates will be picked by the country's estimated 200,000 Conservative Party members. On September 5, the candidate with the highest votes will be chosen as the new Conservative Party and British Prime Minister, succeeding Boris Johnson.
