Sunak tops first round of voting for new UK Tory leader

LONDON, 14 July 2022, (TON): Former finance minister Rishi Sunak led the field of Conservative MPs bidding to become Britain’s next prime minister in the first ballot of Tory lawmakers, as the race narrowed to six with the elimination of two candidates.

Early frontrunner Sunak, who quit as finance minister last week to help trigger outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s downfall, topped the contest with 88 votes, followed by former defense minister Penny Mordaunt, on 67.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss finished third with 50 Conservative lawmakers’ support.

The remaining candidates to meet the minimum 30-vote threshold were former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, on 40, backbencher Tom Tugendhat, on 37, and Attorney General Suella Braverman, who scraped through with 32 votes.

However, former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, who finished runner-up to Johnson in the last contest in 2019, and newly appointed finance minister Nadhim Zahawi, were both eliminated after struggling to hit the threshold.

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