Former British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday topped the third round of voting to elect the next Conservative leader and prime minister of the country, the BBC reported.
The voting became necessary after Boris Johnson announced his resignation as prime minister on July 7.
Sunak, the son of Indian immigrants, secured 14 more votes in the latest round of voting by Conservative Party MPs, which narrowed down the race from five to four candidates on the shortlist, according to The Guardian.
Sunak received 115 votes in total. He is followed by Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt with 82 votes, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss with 71 votes and former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch with 58 votes.
MP Tom Tugendhat, with 31 votes, was eliminated in the latest round of voting.
“I want to thank my team, colleagues and, most of all, the British people for their support,” he said in a statement. “I have been overwhelmed by the response we have received across the country. People are ready for a clean start and our party must deliver on it and put trust back into politics.”
The next round of voting is scheduled for Tuesday, when the field of candidates will be narrowed down to two, following which a vote will be held by around 1,60,000 members of the Conservative party to decide the winning candidate, according to the BBC.
The final result will be announced on September 5.
The race to elect Britain’s next prime minister has been focused on pledges, or non-pledges, to cut down taxes at a time when the country’s economy is facing high inflation, high debt and low growth, Reuters reported.
Sunak has indicated that if elected, he will focus more on fiscal prudence than immediate tax cuts, according to The Guardian. In a video message to his supporters, he had said other candidates may offer “comforting fairytales” rather than face the hard economic reality of the country.
The 42-year-old MP and the son-in-law of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy had resigned as Britain’s finance minister on July 5, plunging Johnson’s government into a crisis.
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