Just a month and a half ago, British Conservatives went into one of those periodic trances they indulge in when they drink the concoctions of neoliberal think tanks, and elected Liz Truss as their leader. Then the oracle spoke: “It is not going to go well, difficult times are coming, the bill for Covid and the war in Ukraine must be paid, taxes and interest rates will rise, mortgages will be more expensive, salaries will remain stagnant, there will be strikes, protests and electricity blackouts, some will have to choose between paying for electricity and eating.
The oracle was Rishi Sunak and the Tories preferred to send him into exile, because no one likes bad news. And they kept drinking his concoction, singing and dancing their tribal dances of small state and big Brexit. Now, after their leader was beheaded by the markets and realpolitik, they have called on the oracle to get them out of the mess they've gotten themselves into.
Rishi Sunak, former finance minister, is the new conservative leader (and virtual prime minister, pending the king's oath), after the withdrawal of his two rivals, first Boris Johnson and then Penny Mordaunt. Technocrat or Davis man, he will stick to the orthodoxy of the markets and is expected to keep Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is what the establishment demanded in order not to continue punishing the pound and Lis Treasury bonds. His first job is to plug the 80 billion euro hole in national finances with the bitter medicine of more taxes and less welfare. The opposite of the sweet concoction that his tribe loves so much.
According to the calculations of the British networks, 180 deputies (out of a total of 357) have declared their support for the former head of the Economy, while the other candidate, Penny Mordaunt, leader of the Conservatives in the House of Commons, has withdrawn after failing to win the backing of 100 members of the Tory parliamentary caucus, it was said to have reached just 90 support.
A few minutes before 2:00 p.m. local time, when the deadline for the deputies who aspired to the Tory leadership -after the resignation of Liz Truss as Prime Minister- to present their candidacies, Mordaunt announced his withdrawal and supported Sunak in his account from Twitter.
The 1922 Committee, which brings together deputies without ministerial positions, organized this process after Truss announced his resignation.
Sunak had gathered numerous supports after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced last night that he would not stand for these primaries, after concluding that "it would not be the right thing to do" because "you cannot govern effectively unless have a united party in Parliament".
The former Minister of Economy also announced his aspirations yesterday through his Twitter account, in which he said that the United Kingdom is facing a "deep economic crisis" and that his goal is to overcome this situation and unite his party. "The choice our party makes now will decide whether the next generation of Britons will have more opportunities than the last. That is why I am running to be your next Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party," Sunak said.
Sunak gets the keys to number 10 Downing Street in the midst of the Divali festival - the most important festival in India and therefore a special moment for him - after having come second in the previous internal elections to succeed Boris Johnson, who Truss won on September 6.
