Johnson had previously been a high-profile favorite until his discredit in the final months of his term as prime minister.
Gleb Garanich | Reuters
LONDON – Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not run for election to replace outgoing leader Liz Truss.
Despite being sacked just three months ago, a number of Conservative MPs have backed Johnson for the top job and he is believed to have told allies over the past few days that he will officially join the fray. nominate.
But in a statement late Sunday, Johnson said it was “simply not the right time.” He added that he had “crossed the very high barrier of 102 nominations” to enter the later stages of the competition. Some 60 lawmakers have publicly supported the former Prime Minister but there are question marks over exactly how many nominations he has received.
Johnson mentioned two of his competitors in his statement, Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, both of whom have officially entered the competition.
“And though I’ve reached out to both Rishi and Penny – because I hope that we can come together in the national interest – sadly we haven’t been able to figure out how to do this,” he said. Johnson said.
Favorite Sunak
Former Finance Secretary Sunak is now the favorite to become Britain’s next leader with around 140 nominations so far.
On Saturday, Johnson flew back from a holiday in the Caribbean amid media frenzy that he was going to throw his hat into the ring. Johnson is said to remain popular in the broader Conservative Party base despite many Tory MPs staunchly against a return.
Former culture secretary and close ally of Johnson, Nadine Dorries tweeted on Thursday that he was the only MP with “commission from party members and the British public”, having won the 2019 General Election.
“There is a very good chance that I will succeed in the election with the Conservatives – and I may indeed return to Downing Street on Friday. But in the final days, I am sad to conclude. that this simply wouldn’t be the right thing to do. You cannot govern effectively unless you have a unified party in parliament,” Johnson said in Sunday’s statement.
Johnson was previously a high-profile favorite until discredited in the final months of his term amid political scandals surrounding Covid-19 law breaking and his connection to the congressman being falsified. disgraced Chris Pincher.
In his farewell speech, he alluded to a future return to the office with the words: “Hasta la vista, baby” or “see you later.”
British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned on Thursdayended a short 44-day term mired in “small-budget” chaos, economic uncertainty, and weeks of political infighting.
How the contest works
Truss’ successor will again be decided by a Conservative Party leadership contest drawn from a short list of candidates. This time, however, the process was fast-tracked over a one-week period, as the party sought to regain credibility and reassure the market.
The candidates have until 2pm London time on Monday to win the support of 100 MPs and thus will enter the vote for party leader.
This threshold is especially high when the party consists of 357 MPs and each person is only allowed to vote for one candidate. Therefore, the limit to the number of possible candidates is three.
As long as a candidate gets the required 100 votes, they automatically win the race and become Britain’s next prime minister. If two or more candidates reach 100 nominations, the contest will conduct nomination voting on Monday afternoon and evening.
If the process drags on beyond Monday, Conservative Party members – who make up around 200,000 people representing 0.3 per cent of Britain’s population – will have until 11am on Friday to vote for their preferred candidate. them in an online vote.
