London: Former British finance minister and Chancellor, Rishi Sunak topped the first two ballots by Conservative MPs to decide Britain's next prime minister, followed by bookmaker favourite Penny Mordaunt.
Sunak won the support of 101 Tory lawmakers, followed by Mordaunt on 83 votes, Liz Truss on 64, Kemi Badenoch on 49, Tom Tugendhat on 32, and Attorney General Suella Braverman on 27. Suella Braverman, a British politician and barrister was eliminated.
The next few rounds of voting among Conservative Party members of Parliament to whittle this list down to just two by next Thursday are scheduled for early next week.
The party began the race after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced earlier this month that he would resign as the party's leader. He is expected to stay on as prime minister until his successor is picked.
The British Indian former Chancellor and son-in-law of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy looks set to be among the final two candidates to hit the campaign trail around the UK for hustings to convince the wider Conservative Party membership ahead of a postal ballot to decide the winner.
The 42-year-old MP was born in Southampton in 1980 to Indian parents who had emigrated from East Africa. He studied politics and economics at the University of Oxford before earning an MBA from Stanford University in the US, where he met his future wife Akshata, daughter of Infosys founder and billionaire NR Narayana Murthy.
Sunak was elected Conservative MP from Richmond in 2015 and supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum. He was re-elected in 2017 and became a junior minister under then PM Theresa May. In 2019, he supported Boris Johnson’s bid to become PM. Johnson later appointed him chief secretary to the treasury and he also became a member of the Privy Council, an advisory body to the Queen. Sunak was named chancellor of the exchequer in 2020 in a cabinet reshuffle after incumbent Sajid Javid resigned over differences with Johnson.
As chancellor, Sunak provided financial support for businesses to retain employees during the pandemic. He also created the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ programme to aid the hospitality industry.
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