A trio of heavyweights of the Conservative Party, including former British secretaries of state for health and social care Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt, late on Saturday announced their bids to succeed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, meaning eight contenders have entered the already acrimonious leadership race.
Javid, a former British chancellor of the exchequer, and Hunt, who finished second to Johnson in the most recent contest in 2019, were joined on the growing candidate list by incumbent British Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi, who was only appointed to that post on Tuesday.
None of the trio are frontrunners in recent polls of Conservative Party members, who are to ultimately choose their new leader and Johnson’s replacement, but are among the most high-profile people to have launched campaigns so far.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Hours earlier, British Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps said he would run, adding yet another candidate to the typically unpredictable political contest.
Shapps is an experienced lawmaker who first served in the Cabinet in 2010, but not a frontrunner in the polls either.
However, British Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace, who has impressed in the role and been one of party members’ favorites in several recent surveys, announced that he would not stand after a discussion with colleagues and family.
The likely months-long campaign, potentially pitting more than a dozen Conservative lawmakers and multiple factions of the ruling party against each other, is set to be formalized today when a committee of backbenchers is to meet to agree on the timetable and rules.
The early frontrunner is former British chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak, who helped start the Cabinet revolt that led to Johnson’s forced resignation on Thursday.
Sunak and Javid resigned late on Tuesday, triggering dozens of more junior colleagues to follow suit and forcing their former boss to quit as Conservative leader 36 hours later.
Johnson, whose three-year premiership has been defined by scandal, the UK’s departure from the EU and the COVID-19 pandemic, said he would stay on until his successor is selected.
Party members are to select their new leader — from a two-person shortlist whittled down in multiple rounds of voting by all 358 Conservative legislators — before the party’s annual conference in early October.
Attorney General for England and Wales Suella Braverman, a prominent early Brexit supporter; former British minister of state for local government, faith and communities Kemi Badenoch; and British legislator Tom Tugendhat have also announced their candidacies.
British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Liz Truss is among those expected to still join the crowded field.
Sunak, narrowly ahead of Truss atop the latest poll of party members, drew immediate support from several senior lawmakers after declaring he was standing in a slick video on social media late on Friday.
He has also been attacked by Johnson loyalists and rival candidates in a sign of the acrimony that could blight the contest.
The Financial Times on Saturday said there was “huge anger” within the outgoing prime minister’s team at Sunak over his resignation, with a senior official calling him “a treacherous bastard.”
In a veiled swipe at Sunak, Shapps said in his leadership announcement that he had “not spent the last few turbulent years plotting or briefing against the prime minister [or] mobilizing a leadership campaign behind his back.”
Following the nearly 60 resignations that triggered his decision to quit, Johnson assembled a new team to govern in the interim, announcing a flurry of junior appointments late on Friday.
However, at a first meeting of his hastily convened top ministers, the 58-year-old on Thursday conceded that “major fiscal decisions should be left for the next prime minister,” his office said.
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