LONDON
\nBritain\u2019s new prime minister will be announced on Sept. 5, with the first votes to begin eliminating candidates in a crowded and increasingly unpredictable and divisive contest to replace Boris Johnson coming this week.
\nSo far 11 candidates have thrown their hat in the ring to succeed Johnson as leader of the ruling Conservative Party and prime minister after he quit following a dramatic rebellion by his own lawmakers and ministers after a series of scandals.
\nThe 1922 committee of Conservative members of parliament (MPs) which organises the leadership contest said hopefuls would need at least 20 nominations from the party\u2019s 358 lawmakers to even proceed to the first round of votes on Wednesday.
\nAnyone who then received less than 30 votes will be eliminated before another vote follows on Thursday. Nearly all the contenders have promised extensive tax cuts to win over the support of their colleagues.
\n\u201cI am very keen we get this concluded as smoothly, cleanly, and rapidly as possible,\u201d said Graham Brady, the committee\u2019s chair.
\nThe field will be whittled down to a final two candidates by lawmakers, before a postal ballot of the Conservative Party\u2019s members, who number fewer than 200,000, takes place over the summer.
\nA poll for the Conservative Home website on Monday found former defence minister Penny Mordaunt was the most popular with members, followed by equalities minister Kemi Badenoch and Rishi Sunak, whose resignation as finance minister helped bring down Johnson.
\n\u201cThere seems to be a quite a big field at the moment, a lively contest,\u201d Brady said. \u201cI hope we will have a very constructive contest, but (also) a really good opportunity for a proper, healthy, constructive debate about the future direction of the Conservative Party.\u201d
\nThe battle to secure the top job comes after one of the most tumultuous periods in modern British political history, when more than 50 government ministers and aides quit, denouncing Johnson\u2019s character, integrity and inability to tell the truth.
\nThe new leader will also have to reverse evaporating support for the Conservatives. A survey by Savanta ComRes on Monday put the opposition Labour Party at 43% compared with 28% for the Conservatives, its biggest poll lead since 2013.
\nThe succession contest has already become personal.
\nFormer finance minister Sajid Javid, another of the candidates, criticised what he called \u201cpoisonous gossip\u201d and \u201cattack memos\u201d delivered by some colleagues over the weekend.
\n\u201cThis isn\u2019t the \u2018House of Cards\u2019 or the \u2018Game of Thrones\u2019, and the people who are here just because they enjoy the game, they are in the wrong place,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a time for pulling together, not apart.\u201d
\nThe issue of tax cuts was fast becoming the central battle in the race with nearly all of the candidates promising to cut business or personal taxes.
\nSetting out her pitch, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who has held ministerial jobs in a number of government departments including trade, justice and the treasury, said she would reverse the recent rise in National Insurance contributions and signalled a cut to corporation tax.
\nFellow contenders Jeremy Hunt and Javid both pledged to cut corporation tax, while Mordaunt has promised to cut fuel duty.
\nSunak is the early front-runner, but he is the only candidate who has played down the prospect of imminent tax cuts, saying the adoption of \u201ccomforting fairy tales\u201d would leave future generations worse off.
\nThis has prompted his rivals to attack his economic record after the tax burden rose to the highest level since the 1950s. One lawmaker confirmed that a dossier criticising Sunak\u2019s record had been circulating on lawmaker WhatsApp groups.
\nNadhim Zahawi, appointed finance minister in the turmoil of last week, said he was also being targeted by rivals after media reports raised questions about the former businessman\u2019s personal finances and tax record.
\nWhoever wins the leadership race will be faced with a daunting in-tray.
\nBritain\u2019s economy is facing rocketing inflation, high debt, and low growth, with people coping with the tightest squeeze on their finances in decades, all set against a backdrop of an energy crunch exacerbated by the war in Ukraine which has sent fuel prices soaring.
\nOn the issue of immigration, all the main leadership candidates have pledged to keep the government\u2019s policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, showing how the party has moved to the right of the political spectrum in recent years.
\nOther candidates include the attorney general, Suella Braverman, the chair of parliament\u2019s foreign affairs committee Tom Tugendhat, and the transport secretary Grant Shapps.
\nLabour leader Keir Starmer in a speech took aim at an \u201carms race of fantasy economics\u201d from the Conservative leadership candidates, claiming that more than 200 billion pounds ($239 billion) of commitments made by them over the weekend were unfunded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON Britain\u2019s new prime minister will be announced on Sept. 5, with the first votes to begin eliminating candidates in a crowded and increasingly unpredictable and divisive contest to replace Boris Johnson coming this week. So far 11 candidates have thrown their hat in the ring to succeed Johnson as leader of the ruling Conservative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-270809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n