London, July 13: Former UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Wednesday won first round of contest to succeed Boris Johnson as leader of the ruling Conservative Party leader and Britain's prime minister.
Rishi Sunak scored 88 votes, ahead of Penny Mordaunt (67 votes) and Truss Liz (50 votes), reports Reuters.
Fellow Indian-origin candidate, Attorney General Suella Braverman, features last on the latest tally with 32 votes, behind Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt (67 votes), Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (50 votes), former minister Kemi Badenoch (40 votes) and backbencher Tom Tugendhat (37 votes). Newly appointed Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and former Cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt are out of the race after not being able to attract the requisite votes of at least 30 MPs, at 25 and 18 backers respectively.
The 42-year-old British Indian MP for Richmond in Yorkshire maintains his lead in the race to replace Boris Johnson as nominations formally opened for the contest. At this early stage of the contest, the race seems to be narrowing down into a three-way Sunak, Mordaunt and Liz Truss clash, but the field is still seen as wide open.
On Monday, the 1922 Committee laid out the timetable for the leadership race and confirmed that the new Prime Minister will be elected on September 5 and address their first Prime Minister's Questions in Parliament on September 7. The first round of voting by Tory MPs is scheduled for Wednesday, when each candidate will require the backing of 30 colleagues - or just under 10 per cent of Tory MPs - in total to progress to round two.
A second ballot on Thursday will narrow down the field further as candidates with the least votes keep getting knocked out. There is provision for further ballots next week if the race to get to the final two candidates does not conclude by the end of this week.
The deadline to narrow down the shortlist to just two remaining candidates is July 21, when the 1922 Committee Chair Sir Graham Brady will also seek an assurance that both finalists will remain in the race to face the wider party membership ballot.
After the field is whittled down to the final two candidates, they will tour the UK for hustings to campaign the estimated 200,000 Tory party members who will then cast postal ballots for the winner based on a one member, one vote system. The candidate who receives the most votes will win the race and be declared the new Tory leader and UK prime minister.