Johnson announced on Thursday that he would resign as prime minister after a mass rebellion erupted in the Conservative Party.
“Someone has to seize this moment and make the right decisions,” Sunak said in a campaign video posted on Twitter. “That’s why I’m running to be the next Conservative leader and your prime minister.”
I stand to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and your prime minister. Let us restore confidence, rebuild the economy, and reunite the country. Participation # Ready4Rishi
– Ready for) July 8, 2022
The Reuters Notes: According to a poll of Conservative Party members – who usually have a choice between the remaining candidates – Sunak leads with 25 percent, ahead of Secretary of State Liz Truss with 21 percent. The Opinium poll for Channel 4 News polled 493 party members.
A party committee will set the rules and schedule for the race to replace Johnson next week.
His critics say Sunak’s budget last year was Britain’s biggest tax burden since the 1950s, undermining his claim to support tax cuts. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sunak saw more than 400 billion pounds of economic support, which managed to avoid a huge jump in unemployment, in exchange for allowing public borrowing to rise to record levels as well as a historic drop in GDP.
Sunak’s popularity among conservative lawmakers later suffered when he raised payroll taxes in April to fund increased spending on health and social care and announced that he would significantly raise corporate taxes in 2023.
In his resignation letter as finance minister this week, Sunak said it had become clear that his approach to the economy was very different from that of Johnson as the two tried to agree on the country’s next steps.
Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mark Spencer immediately announced his support for the candidacy of Sun, who otherwise voted to leave the European Union in 2016.
Cover photo: Olly Scarf – WPA Pool / Getty Images
