MPs jockey for British leadership, Defense Secretary will not stand

Britain’s Defense Secretary, who is polled as one of the favorites to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, announced on Saturday that he would not take part in the already bitter leadership race, which will be contested by a number of ruling Conservative contenders.

Ben Wallace, who has impressed in his role amid the war in Ukraine and has been among the top performers in several recent polls of Tory members, said he will not stand after speaking to colleagues and family about an offer.

“It wasn’t an easy decision but I’m focused on my current job and the safety of this great country,” he added on Twitter.

The likely month-long campaign, which may pit more than a dozen Tory lawmakers and several factions of the ruling party against each other, is due to be formalized on Monday when a committee of backbenchers meets to agree the timeline and rules.

Four candidates have so far declared that they stand. The early frontrunner is former Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak, who helped ignite the cabinet revolt that led to Johnson’s forced resignation on Thursday.

Sunak resigned late Tuesday, prompting dozens of other younger colleagues to follow his example and forcing his ex-boss to quit as Tory leader 36 hours later.

But Johnson, whose three-year tenure has been marked by the scandal, the country’s exit from the European Union and Covid, said he will stay until his successor is chosen.

A summer of bitter campaigns now looms.

Party members will eventually elect their new leader ahead of the Conservatives’ annual conference in early October from a shortlist of two drawn up in multiple rounds of voting from all 358 Tory MPs.

Taxation will be a key feature of the race, alongside candidates’ Brexit credentials, as the UK faces the toxic combination of high inflation and skyrocketing cost of living, as well as stagnant growth and relatively high tax rates.

Alongside Sunak, Attorney General and Arch-Brexitee Suella Braverman, relatively unknown former Equality Minister Kemi Badenoch and backbench Tory MP Tom Tugendhat have announced their candidacy.

Secretary of State Liz Truss and new Treasury Secretary Nadhim Zahawi – who replaced Sunak at the Treasury Department on Tuesday – are expected to join the crowded field.

Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who finished second to Boris Johnson in 2019, is also “almost certain” he will stand again, allies have told British media.

Former Finance and Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who also left Johnson’s government on Tuesday, could also run but was asked by Sunak’s allies to step aside to give him clear leadership, The Times reported.

Sunak, who was just ahead of Truss in the latest poll of party members, immediately garnered support from several senior MPs after he said late Friday that he was in a slick video on social media.

He was also quick to be attacked by Johnson loyalists as a sign of acrimony that could crush the competition.

Brexit Chancellery Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg denounced him as a “high-tax” finance minister who has failed to curb inflation, amid reports of a coordinated push to derail his bid for the top job.

The Financial Times said on Saturday that there was “great anger” within the outgoing prime minister’s team at Sunak over his resignation, with a senior official calling him “a treacherous bastard”.

After the nearly 60 resignations that prompted his decision to resign, Johnson assembled a new team to govern in the interim and announced a spate of junior appointments late Friday.

At a first meeting of his hastily convened top ministers on Thursday, the 58-year-old conceded that “big budget decisions should be left to the next prime minister,” Downing Street said.

The Conservatives have declined to say how many eligible members they have but note it will be more than the 160,000 who voted in the last leadership contest in 2019.

As the list of candidates grows, some senior lawmakers have warned the field must narrow quickly.

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, treasurer of the 1922 committee administering the competition, predicted to Times Radio that the final shortlist of two people to be presented to Members could be decided within weeks before Parliament’s summer recess after begins July 21st.