The race to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister was already in full swing on Saturday when conservative factions were reported against Rishi Sunak, the first favorite, while a senior MP called for “hopeless” candidates to leave.
With four candidates confirmed, but predictions that as many as 15 could run as the next Conservative leader, Conservative MPs expressed concern about the potential timing for the race and the prospect of aggregate internal fights.
Sunak, the former chancellor, who entered the race on Friday evening with an elegantly edited video campaign message posted on Twitter under the slogan “Ready for Rishi,” is considered one of the top favorites.
But he has already faced criticism among fellow MPs for stating that he will focus more on fiscal prudence than on immediate tax cuts, with his video aimed at other candidates who may offer “comforting fairy tales” instead of economic truths.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a loyalist to Johnson, said Friday evening that he could not support Sunak, whose resignation as chancellor helped precipitate the loss of faith in the prime minister that led him to resign on Thursday as the Conservative leader.
“We have had a chancellor with high taxes and I belong to a party with low taxes and I want to see how we become a party with low taxes again,” Rees-Mogg, Brexit Minister of Opportunity, told BBC Radio’s Any Questions 4..
Sunak was also affected by the start of what is likely to be a wave of anonymous briefings from Johnson’s Downing Street, where his role in the prime minister’s march has sparked outrage.
A senior No. 10 official was quoted in the Financial Times as saying that Sunak was “a treacherous bastard,” while a Johnson supporter in the cabinet told the newspaper, “Rishi will get everything he deserves to lead the charge of overthrowing the former. Minister “.
So far, the only confirmed candidates are Sunak, Senior Deputy Tom Tugendhat, Attorney General Suella Braverman, and Kemi Badenoch, who was jointly Minister for Leveling and Equality until she resigned last week.
In an article for the Times announcing his candidacy, Badenoch indicated that he would lean heavily on the issues of the cultural war, an area that also defined much of his ministerial approach, and said he hoped to address “the zero – sum identity policy we see today. “
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Steve Baker, another Conservative right-wing MP who had indicated he could join the race, has now backed Braverman.
A number of other candidates are expected to testify soon, including Ben Wallace, the secretary of defense; Liz Truss, Secretary of State; Sajid Javid, who resigned as Health Secretary last week; Nadhim Zahawi, who replaced Sunak as chancellor; and Penny Mordaunt, the former secretary of defense.
A number of other MPs have indicated that they can do so, including Nadine Dorries, the secretary of culture, and Rehman Chishti, who, less than a day after receiving his first ministerial post after 12 years in parliament, he said he was “actively thinking.” a career.
Sir Charles Walker, a former chairman of the 1922 Conservative Committee of Deputies who would set the detailed rules of the contest, said he hoped the early stages of the race would not be too brutal.
“It is obviously up to the candidates, no matter how many, not to lump each other out,” he told BBC Radio 4 Today.
“I hope some of the candidates who know they have no hope of leading our party and becoming prime minister really decide to leave for the general good.”
According to party rules, the field is reduced to two finals by successive votes between Conservative MPs, with the last couple subject to voting by Conservative members.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the 1922 Committee Treasurer, told Times Radio that it was possible that the threshold of nominations needed to enter the race, and then the minimum number of MP votes needed to approve each round, could be increase in order to speed up the process.