Rishi Sunak will be the next prime minister of the U.K. after his last remaining rival Penny Mordaunt dropped out of the contest. He'll succeed Liz Truss, who resigned last Thursday after a chaotic six weeks in office.
Her decision avoids the need for a vote by Conservative Party members, who would have been balloted this week had more candidates made it past the threshold.
“Rishi Sunak is therefore elected as leader of the Conservative Party,” he told Tory MPs, who banged desks and cheered in the oak-paneled House of Commons committee room where they had gathered to hear the result. Sunak will address Tory MPs at 2.30 p.m. But Johnson said on Sunday evening that it was “not the right time” for him to attempt a comeback and suggested he would not be able to govern effectively without “a unity party in parliament”.Sunak was chancellor for over two years and steered the U.K. economy through the coronavirus pandemic before resigning in the summer in an act that helped bring down Johnson’s premiership.