Campaign for Downing Street: Boris Johnson’s resignation

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pulled out of the Downing Street race in a stunning turn of events just hours before nominations closed on Sunday evening.

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Mr Johnson said in a statement that he had secured the 100 sponsorships he needed to stand, with applications due to close at 2pm on Monday. But he said, “Over the past few days I have come to the sad conclusion that this is not the right thing to do. If you don’t have a united party in Parliament, you cannot govern effectively,” he added.

He said he believed he would have had a better chance (…) of returning to Downing Street if he had been a candidate and that he was “excellently placed” to lead his camp in the next legislative election. In two years..

The withdrawal paves the way for the appointment of former finance minister Risi Sunak on Monday: he is currently the only candidate with the required 100 supporters. The other candidate, Parliamentary Relations Minister Penny Mordant, stayed away.

In a weekend of intense debate, Mr. Sunak, 42, began Sunday in the race to succeed Liz Truss, who resigned after 44 days in office.

“I want to fix our economy, unite our party and work for our country,” he said on Twitter, announcing his candidacy, promising “integrity, professionalism and responsibility.”

Boris Johnson’s camp said the 58-year-old former prime minister, who returned on Saturday from a weekend holiday in the Caribbean, had also reached 100 supporters, contradicting at least three unofficial counts of between 57 and 76 on Sunday evening. Support.

“I’ve spoken to Boris Johnson and he seems clear,” said minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, one of his relatives.

A second announced candidate, Penny Mordant, the minister for relations with parliament, has been approached by Boris Johnson and asked to withdraw in her favour, according to her entourage. Ms Mordant told the BBC she was the candidate to ‘win’.

Support for Rishi Sunak is “growing by the hour”, said Dominic Raab, Boris Johnson’s former deputy prime minister.

“Guaranteed Disaster”

Among his most notable recent supporters is former interior minister Suella Braverman, influential in the right wing of the party and loyal to Boris Johnson for many years.

Even if they don’t support him, many Conservative MPs are wary of declaring their admiration for Boris Johnson, who was forced to resign in early July after a string of scandals and lies. This perennial optimist and former Brexit “hero” is popular with the party base.

But for many, including in his camp, he is too controversial to return to Downing Street. Especially since he is still under parliamentary inquiry, which will soon begin to determine whether he lied to Parliament about “Partygate” about these illegal parties in Downing Street during the anti-Covid lockdown.

“This is a guaranteed disaster,” Northern Ireland Minister Steve Baker said on Sunday, predicting that Johnson’s government would implode within months.

Rishi Sunak, guardian of budgetary orthodoxy and workaholic, seems a good choice as the country heads into a deep economic and social crisis due to Liz Truss’ catastrophic blunders that destabilized the markets and led to the book.

Mr Sunak has regularly warned against Liz Truss’ economic plan this summer. He did not convince the extremists in the party who had the last word and elected her.

The campaign to replace her will last only a few days.

If Penny Mordant does not stand and reaches 100 endorsements, Tory MPs will hold a provisional vote on Monday afternoon to tell the party base who they prefer.

Members will then be able to vote online until October 28. Deputies’ indicative vote did not exist this summer, when almost 140,000 party voters chose Liz Truss, while deputies overwhelmingly chose Rishi Sunak over him.

The next Conservative prime minister will be the third in two months and the fifth since 2016.