Five candidates for UK prime minister face off in TV debate

The five remaining candidates for the position of the next prime minister of the United Kingdom will face off in the first of three televised debates on Friday (15). A good performance can increase the odds in a battle that doesn’t have a clear favorite so far.

An initial field of 11 challengers has been narrowed after two days of voting by Conservative Party lawmakers, but no individual has yet emerged as the obvious successor to Boris Johnson, who announced he was stepping down after a series of scandals.

While former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak topped those two votes, he faces stiff competition from Foreign Minister Liz Truss, who has the support of several key figures, and Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt, who polls suggest is the most popular among party members, who will decide the winner.

Former equality minister Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat, chairman of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, also remain in the running and hope a strong showing in the debates will give their campaigns a boost.

“Tonight is the big event because it’s not just about Conservative members, as important as they are, it’s really about the country at large,” Tugendhat told the press.

“What we need to show, what everyone needs to show, is that they are able to communicate conservative messages with force and debate a lot. Because this isn’t really a knife fight in a phone booth. It’s about ruling the UK.”

Whoever gets the job will face skyrocketing inflation and sluggish economic growth, as well as a lack of public confidence in politics after Johnson’s scandalous period in power.

Election polls also suggest that the Conservatives are lagging significantly behind the opposition Labor Party.

“Who will be the best person to take on (Labour leader) Keir Starmer in the upcoming general election?” lawmaker Richard Holden, a Sunak supporter, told Sky News.

“That’s what I’m interested in, because I need to keep my seat to give it to people.”

Fall for two until July 21

Sunak, whose decision to leave the Treasury last week helped set off a cascade of ministerial resignations that toppled Johnson, remains a favorite among his 358 fellow Conservative lawmakers.

But his lead over Truss and Mordaunt is small, and both could overtake him depending on whom lawmakers who supported other candidates choose to support. The battle has become increasingly hostile as rivals struggle to stay in the competition.

On Thursday (14), Attorney General Suella Braverman was eliminated from the dispute and gave her support to Truss, who also won the support of David Frost, who negotiated the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.

The Times newspaper reported that Johnson was asking the defeated leadership candidates to support “anyone but Rishi”.

Meanwhile, Mordaunt, a lesser-known figure among the general public who has become a bookmaker favorite, is facing increasing attacks from rival camps for her expertise, with Frost saying she hasn’t been tough enough on the European Union, a key issue for many. conservatives.

“Knife for Penny! Not up to the job, rivals say,” the Daily Express reported on its front page, while the headline in the Daily Mail, another typically conservative tabloid, was “Mordaunt under the microscope.”

“People are obviously trying to stop me from reaching the finals because they don’t want to run against me,” Mordaunt told Sky News, saying he didn’t want to get involved in the same “black operation”.

“In the vote that was taken, I beat all the other candidates,” she said.

After the TV debates, parliamentary voting will resume on Monday (18), with the candidate with the fewest votes eliminated each time, until the two finalists are chosen by July 21.

The new leader will then be selected by the country’s 200,000 Conservative Party members and will be announced on September 5.

(With information from William James; edited by John Stonestreet)