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Mordaunt’s retreat makes Sunak prime minister

Ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak becomes UK’s new Prime Minister. Its only rival, Penny Mordaunt, withdrew her candidacy in the party’s race to replace outgoing Prime Minister Liz Truss, she announced Monday. Sunak has her full support, the acting minister of Parliamentary Affairs writes on Twitter.

This clears the way for 42-year-old Sunak. Southampton-born Sunak, the son of Indian immigrants, becomes the first British head of government with an ethnic minority background in Britain. “Rishi Sunak has been elected head of the Conservative Party,” confirmed the head of the responsible parliamentary faction committee, Graham Brady, in London.

The formal appointment of Rushi Sunak as the new British Prime Minister is expected to take place on Tuesday at the earliest. Official affairs would no longer be handed over to Sunak by outgoing Prime Minister Liz Truss on Monday, a Downing Street spokesman told Britain’s PA news agency in the afternoon.

Those are his first words

In his first public appearance as Prime Minister’s candidate, Sunak announced that he wanted to unite both the country and the recently divided Tory party. He had previously addressed his group behind closed doors, who received him with demonstrative loud applause. Sunak warned the party faced an “existential threat” and had a choice between “uniting or dying,” those in attendance reported.

Prominent support in their own camp

Sunak presented himself as a candidate who can unite the party. Most recently, Commerce Secretary Kemi Badenoch and ex-Interior Minister Suella Braverman, two leading politicians from the party’s right-wing, had backed him. The 42-year-old benefits from the fact that in the party’s internal election campaign for party leadership against Truss over the summer, he warned of the very financial chaos the incumbent prime minister caused with her economic policies during her short term in office.

Meanwhile, his outgoing predecessor Liz Truss congratulated her designated successor Sunak on Twitter. “You have my full support,” Truss said Monday.

Several factions called on the Tories to rally behind the new prime minister. “The time of internal debate is finally over and I know that under the leadership of Rishi Sunak we can and will deliver on the priorities of the British people,” Secretary-General Jake Berry said.

However, the cheers over Sunak’s imminent move to Downing Street are unlikely to last long. Despite the clear vote in the Tory group – more than half of the MPs voted for Sunak – the group and the party are divided. The right wing continues to argue for a more radical tax cut policy and a hard line against the EU in the dispute over special Brexit rules for Northern Ireland. Company representatives hope for a steady hand. “The political and economic uncertainty of recent months has severely damaged the UK business environment and must now be ended,” said the Chamber of Commerce Association.

criticism from other parties

Sunak is the third prime minister in four months. Given the lack of votes, the opposition doubts its democratic mandate and calls for new elections. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said the Tories had re-installed Sunak “a distant prime minister with no plan to repair the damage and without giving the British people a say”.

Angela Rayner, Labor Vice-President, said: “The Tories crowned Rishi Sunak Prime Minister without him saying anything about how he would run the country and without anyone getting a chance to vote.” Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Ian Blackford called on Labor leader and opposition leader Keir Starmer to propose a vote of no confidence in Sunak in the House of Commons.

That had happened before

The Tory party is seeking new leadership for the second time in a few months. In the summer, Sunak was defeated by his competitor Liz Truss in the race to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson. But Truss had to resign after a few weeks — mostly because her economic policies had caused the financial turmoil Sunak had warned about during the election campaign. Recently, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was also discussed for a comeback. On Sunday, however, he withdrew surprisingly.

Now Sunak becomes the youngest prime minister in more than 200 years. This Tuesday he will be officially announced by King Charles III. charged with forming a government. The King traveled back to London from his eastern England estate, Sandringham.