Rishi Sunak will become the next British Prime Minister: the ex-finance minister won the race in Downing Street on Monday after the renunciation of Boris Johnson and the failure of his opponent Penny Mordaunt to qualify.
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Aged 42, this grandson of immigrants of Indian origin with the typical career of the British elite makes history by becoming the first non-white to lead the government of the United Kingdom.
The victory of this deputy who was sworn in to Parliament on the Bhagavad Gita, a text considered one of the fundamental writings of Hinduism, comes in the middle of the Hindu festival of Diwali.
“I can confirm that we have only received one valid candidacy,” declared the head of the organization of the poll, Graham Brady, “Rishi Sunak is thus elected leader of the Conservative Party”.
With the party having a majority in the House of Commons, Mr. Sunak thus becomes Prime Minister, with the challenge of tackling a deep social crisis and trying to unify a majority that some consider unmanageable after 12 years in power. He is due to speak at 2:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. GMT).
“I want to straighten out our economy, unite our party and act for our country,” he said Sunday, announcing his candidacy on Twitter during an intense weekend of negotiations. Wanting to mark his difference from Boris Johnson, he promised “integrity, professionalism and responsibility”.
Once the resignation of Liz Truss, initially pushed after the financial storm caused by her plans for massive tax cuts, is formally delivered to King Charles III, the sovereign will task Rishi Sunak with forming a new government, in a timetable that must be clarified shortly.
It will be a first for the new sovereign, who acceded to the throne on September 8 with the death of his mother Elizabeth II.
An unsuccessful candidate this summer against Liz Truss, the short-lived prime minister who announced her resignation after just 44 days in office, Rishi Sunak will be the fifth prime minister since the 2016 Brexit referendum, which opened a long chapter of unprecedented economic and political turbulence. United Kingdom.
Reassuring for the markets
Failing to have managed to collect 100 sponsorships, his opponent, the Minister for Relations with Parliament Penny Mordaunt, 49, is eliminated.
She admitted defeat on Twitter shortly before the official announcement.
The 170,000 members of the Conservative Party thus do not have to be consulted, a process which would have delayed the emergence of the winner until Friday.
Rishi Sunak, the former Chancellor, guardian of budgetary orthodoxy, has seduced a large part of his camp and will come to power in a United Kingdom which is going through a severe economic and social crisis, with inflation at more than 10% and increasing strikes.
The situation has continued to deteriorate in recent months as the government was paralyzed by the successive upheavals agitating the majority. It was further aggravated by the mistakes of Liz Truss who destabilized the markets and caused the pound to fall.
Mr. Sunak had regularly denounced the economic plan of Liz Truss this summer. He appears as a reassuring figure for the British markets.
Johnson sets a date
In a spectacular reversal, his former boss, ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Sunday evening that he was giving up running, due to divisions within the majority.
Always sure of himself, Boris Johnson, 58, said he was convinced that he would have had, if he had chosen to be a candidate, “a good chance (…) to return to Downing Street”. He announced his resignation in July, cornered by dozens of resignations in his government, including that of Mr. Sunak.
He said he was “well placed” to lead his camp, in power for 12 years, during the next legislative elections scheduled for two years.
Largely in force in the polls, the Labor opposition is relentlessly calling for early elections.