Britain’s prime minister choices

Islam News – The Conservative Party in Britain whittled the race to become the country’s next prime minister down to two candidates.

Rishi Sunak, a former chancellor of the Exchequer — Britain’s equivalent of a finance minister — and Liz Truss, the current foreign secretary, emerged as the top two choices from a field of 11 after five rounds of voting by the party’s lawmakers. The two will campaign to secure the support of the Conservative rank-and-file in the lead-up to a vote, with the results announced in early September.

Sunak, a 42-year-old of South Asian ancestry, would be the first person of color to occupy 10 Downing Street. Truss, 46, began her political career as a Liberal Democrat and voted to remain in the E.U. in the 2016 referendum but has since became a zealous Brexit convert — and will be viewed as the candidate of hard-line Brexiteers.

Backdrop: The next prime minister will face a Conservative electorate that has grown frustrated with the seemingly endless parade of scandals under Boris Johnson, who announced this month that he planned to step down. Sunak’s resignation set in motion the events that brought down Johnson, but neither he nor Truss represents much of a break with the departing prime minister in terms of policy.

Context: Sunak might suffer from the role he played in helping to oust Johnson. Truss sat alongside Johnson in the House of Commons on Wednesday and has stayed in his cabinet even as several others quit.

Source: The New York Times