Rishi Sunak has warned that the UK faces a “profound economic challenge” as it prepares to take power after emerging victorious in the race to succeed Liz Truss as Prime Minister.
In a brief speech just hours after Penny Mordaunt withdrew from the race for No. 10 Downing St, the former chancellor of the exchequer, 42, vowed to make it his “top priority” to unite the nation and his embattled Tory party. . “I will work day in and day out to deliver for the British people,” he said.
Sunak faces the huge challenge of stabilizing the UK economy in the face of headwinds, including double-digit inflation, rising interest rates and rising mortgage costs. After leaving the Tories languishing in the polls after a disastrous 7 weeks in power, Truss also has the difficult task of uniting the various Tory factions, with many of the party’s MPs blaming him for the downfall of Truss’s predecessor Boris Johnson earlier in the year.
Sunak earlier told Tory MPs that their party faced an “existential threat”, according to Simon Hoare, a Tory lawmaker present at his closed-door address. His call for unity echoed Mordaunt’s words in her concession shortly before 2pm. local time. She called on the Tories to “unite and work together for the good of the nation”.
By dropping out, Mordaunt ensured there would be no need for a second round of voting among local party members, which was not scheduled until Friday. The handover of power to Sunak from Truss is now likely to take place as early as Tuesday, although Prime Minister’s spokesman Max Blain was unable to confirm the timing, saying it would be resolved later on Monday. However, he told reporters that it would not take place on Monday.
It is a remarkable turnaround in Sunak’s political fortunes after the former Chancellor of the Exchequer left Boris Johnson’s government in July and then lost to Truss in the last Tory leadership battle in the summer. But his repeated warnings that her plans would cause economic chaos proved correct, putting him in pole position as Truss’s premiership imploded.
Even so, Sunak was no slouch given the bitterness and division in the Conservative Party. He is still tarnished in the eyes of many Tory MPs for his role in Johnson’s downfall, and the former prime minister’s weekend flirtation with what would be an outrageous comeback just months after he was briefly ousted threatened to derail Sunak’s hopes.
In the end, Johnson withdrew without ever showing that he had the support of the 100 Tory MPs needed to formally challenge the leadership. Similarly, Mordaunt withdrew shortly before the influential Tory MP Graham Brady was due to announce which candidates had crossed the line.