Cape Town - With Boris Johnson officially having resigned as leader of the Conservative Party after more than 50 ministers resigned on Thursday, speculation is swirling around the candidates listed below on who could replace him.
While Johnson has stepped down as leader of his party, he will continue to stay on as caretaker prime minister until a new leader is appointed, with the timetable for succession to be announced by the 1992 Committee of backbench MPs next week.
WHO ARE THE POSSIBLE REPLACEMENTS?
While there is no clear favourite to replace Johnson, foreign secretary Liz Truss who is beloved among the party members reportedly cut short a working trip to Indonesia to fly back home amid the political chaos.
Truss is outspoken and known for her willingness to go on the political attack.
Former foreign and health secretary Jeremy Hunt finished last to Johnson in the 2019 leadership contest while branding himself as a “serious” alternative. Hunt can be expected to offer a more serious and less controversial style of leadership after the turmoil of Johnson's premiership.
Defence secretary Ben Wallace who were among those who urged Johnson to step down has risen in recent months to be the most popular member of the government with Conservative Party members.
Wallace recently topped the polls of Tory grassroots’ as the preferred next leader due to his role in handling of the Ukraine crisis.
“I’m so uninterested in a pitch for leadership… I doubt I’d want to be prime minister, but I am a politician, so you can read that answer as you’d like,” Wallace said during a Washington Post Live event.
Rishi Sunak who resigned as the finance minister on Tuesday was a front-runner to replace Johnson prior to his scandal over his billionaire heiress wife’s tax affairs at the start of this year.
Sunak holds a high profile on social media and was praised for his Covid-19 economic rescue package as well as for the costly jobs retention programme to avoid mass unemployment.
Former health secretary Sajid Javid who also resigned on Tuesday is a former banker and a champion of free markets, has served in a number of cabinet roles.
Javid is the son of Pakistani Muslim immigrant parents and finished fourth in the 2019 leadership contest to replace former prime minister Theresa May.
The newly appointed finance minister Nadhim Zahawi impressed as vaccines minister and assisting in the education department when the nation had one of the world's fastest roll-outs of Covid-19 jabs.
Zahawi is a former refugee from Iraq who spoke no English. Before he had entered into politics, Zahawi co-founded the polling company YouGov in 2010.
Penny Mordaunt is a former defence secretary who was sacked by Johnson when he came into power as prime minister after she had endorsed his rival Hunt during the last leadership contest.
Mordaunt is the first woman to have been the UK defence secretary, she was a passionate supporter of exiting the European Union and is now in a role as a junior trade minister.
IOL