Indian-origin British politician Rishi Sunak is currently leading the race to become the Prime Minister of Britain. He has managed to garner the most votes in the Conservative Party’s second round of voting. In the first round, he got the maximum 88 votes as compared to the rest of the candidates and in the second round also he is on top with the maximum 101 votes.
Now only 5 candidates are left in the race for the post of UK PM. After Sunak in the voting held on Thursday (July 14, 2022), Junior Trade Minister Penny Mordant got 83 votes and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss 64 votes. After this, MLA Tom Tugendhat got 32 votes and Kemi Badenoch got 49 votes. At the same time, Attorney General Suella Braverman is out of the race with 27 votes.
In the second round of voting, 358 members of the British Parliament cast their vote through ballot paper. Rishi Sunak has been at the forefront of this race since the beginning, but he still faces the challenge of garnering the support of British MPs.
The process of nomination in the Conservative Party to find the new Prime Minister took place on Wednesday, in which voting was done by ballot paper. In Britain, the candidate who gets less than 30 votes is out of the race for PM. If all candidates get more than 30 votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Before voting, each candidate is given a speech time of 12 minutes, in which he has a chance to garner votes for himself. Attorney General Suella Braverman got 27 votes, due to which she is now out of this race.
At present, Sunak and Penny Mordant are leading the race for the post of PM. According to the timetable set by the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, by July 21 there would be only two candidates in the race. Candidates will then have to prove their candidacy in front of 2 lakh Conservative Party members. The candidate who gets the most votes will become the Prime Minister of Britain. Britain will get a new prime minister on 5 September.
