As Boris Johnson continues as a sort of happy interim prime minister, the race to replace him will now go before the 200,000 or so dues-paying members of the Conservative Party, who will elect, via postal ballot, Johnson’s successor.
Most of Britain is sitting on the sidelines for all this. There will be no general election to choose the new prime minister, and although a televised debate is scheduled for Monday, many of the hustings events will be off the record or closed to the press.
The matchup between Sunak and Truss offers Tory voters a choice between a man who says he is the only adult in the race and a woman who says she is the only one who has shown real leadership.
The two contenders are both conservatives, and to the outside world their political differences are subtle.
Truss, 46, supports a series of tax cuts.
Sunak, 42, says her plan is the “fantastic island” economy and that Britain must first get inflation under control.
Sunak’s family taxes are a bit of a sore point. And earlier this year it appeared that his aspirations for higher office may be over after reports that his wife had evaded millions in tax on her foreign income.
Sunak, a former Goldman Sachs heavyweight, married really rich. Akshata Murty, whom he met at Stanford, is the daughter of NR Narayana Murthy, the Indian billionaire who founded Infosys. The couple made the Sunday Times list of Britain’s 250 richest people, with a combined fortune estimated at £730 million, or about $875 million.
Their family moved out of the chancellor’s official residence amid the tax controversy in April. But Sunak stayed on as the country’s finance minister – until his acrimonious resignation this month sparked a revolt against Johnson.
Truss did not speak out against Johnson until it was clear that the tide had turned.
She is Britain’s first female Conservative secretary, who – in an echo of Hillary Clinton – says she is ready to lead the country “from day one”.
If she wins, it would be the third time the Conservative Party has put a woman in the top job, following prime ministers held by Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
Truss has won praise for her support of Ukraine – and has been a target of criticism from Russia.
Although she opposed the Brexit referendum in 2016, she has since said she regrets that vote, and she has been a prominent voice arguing that Britain should rewrite provisions for Northern Ireland in its post-Brexit trade deal. She is a passionate freelancer.
Sunak was the leader in the first parliamentary phase of the competition, winning every round. Now, however, as the two finalists pitch their campaigns to activists, polls suggest he is the underdog. A YouGov poll of Tory members published on Tuesday found Sunak to lose to Truss. She is also a bookies favorite.
But experts say the race remains unpredictable. The Telegraph newspaper, which is closely aligned with the Conservatives, warned that this leadership race would be the “worst” in the party’s history. In a televised debate last weekend, the candidates took parts out of each other.
“Liz, in your past you’ve been both a Liberal Democrat and a Remainer,” Sunak told Truss at one point. “I was just wondering which one you regret the most?”
Truss said she was not “born into the Conservative Party” – that her parents were “left-wing activists and I’ve been on a political journey ever since”. She added that she became a conservative after seeing “the kids at my school disappointed.” Unlike Sunak, she didn’t go to an expensive boarding school.
The two will spend the summer — at luncheons on golf courses, conference centers, discreet gatherings with donors — making their pitch.
In the meantime, Johnson will bid a long farewell. On Wednesday, he said goodbye to the House of Commons – and to his fellow lawmakers who gave him the boot: “I want to thank everyone here and hasta la vista, honey!”
Seriously, those were his last words – to borrow the phrase popularized by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie Terminator 2.
Speaking of President George W. Bush’s premature declaration of victory in Iraq, Johnson declared his legacy: “mission largely accomplished.”
Was it appropriate? Was it great? Was it … genius? Johnson, a serial creep who relishes the role of entertaining after-dinner speaker, won the hearts of his party and the country with such lines.
And don’t forget, Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California, not once, but twice.
Johnson is on the way out. But many in the halls of Westminster predict he could one day return.
It wasn’t a somber farewell from him on Wednesday, but all the surface, all the talking points, all the greatest hits, punchlines and high-speed runaway elocution of the prime minister.
The House of Commons was packed – and roaring, filled with the usual insults and punch lines that is typical of the weekly session known as Prime Minister’s Questions, a gladiatorial contest for debaters who graduated from Oxford and Cambridge.
There was bluster, there was noise, there was “sit-down,” a legendary former Speaker of the House once called it.
Johnson stood in the prime minister’s seat in the “delivery box” for what he called his “maybe, sure” final verbal lashing.
At the end of his speech he gave this advice to his follower:
“Stand by the Americans, support the Ukrainians, support freedom and democracy everywhere.”
And also: “Cut taxes and deregulate wherever you can to make this a better place to live and invest.”
“Focus on the road ahead, but always remember to check the rearview mirror,” the prime minister said.
“And remember, above all, it’s not Twitter that matters. It is the people who sent us here,” he concluded.
Earlier in the hour, Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labor Party, asked Johnson what message the public could take away as contenders for his job “can’t find a single good thing” to say about the prime minister. or the record of his government. ?
