Online and postal ballots for Conservative members closed at 5pm (1600 GMT) on Friday, after a two-month contest that saw the two finalists tour the country taking part in contests and televised debates. The result of the run-off between Foreign Secretary Truss and former Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak will be announced at 12.30pm on Monday, a day before the outgoing Johnson formally tenders his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II. Conservative Party chairman Andrew Stevenson thanked both candidates for taking part in the often “exhausting program in good spirits”. “I know our party is ready to unite around a new leader and face the challenges we face as a country ahead,” he said as the polls closed. Voting by the Conservative Party’s roughly 200,000 members began in early August, a month after Johnson announced his resignation following a series of scandals and resignations from his government. Truss, 47, has consistently enjoyed overwhelming support over Sunak in member polls. He has campaigned to cut taxes and prioritize economic growth above all else, just as the UK faces decades of high inflation and is expected to enter recession later this year. “I have a bold plan that will grow our economy and deliver higher wages, more security for families and world-class public services,” Truss said in a statement as the curtain fell on her often bitter 42-year race. old rival Sunak. “If elected prime minister, I will never let anyone mess with us and I will do everything in my power to ensure that our great nation succeeds.” Sunak described Truss’s plans as “reckless”, warning they risked increasing inflation and eroding the country’s standing in the eyes of international lenders and markets. He has argued that his experience in guiding the country’s finances through the pandemic leaves him in the best position to lead the UK through its current financial woes. “We face huge challenges ahead, but also huge opportunities,” Sunak said on Friday. “I know what it takes to overcome difficult times. I did it as chancellor and I will do it again as prime minister.”
“Best Politician”
The Conservatives have turned on their Brexit hero Johnson after months of mishandling controversies and favored Sunak over Truss as the most electable leader to take them through to the next general election in January 2025. But party ranks have rallied to Trass’s right-wing platform, even though she is a former Liberal Democrat who opposed leaving the European Union in Britain’s 2016 referendum. “She’s a better politician,” John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, told AFP news agency after Truss stuck to a simple script during the long, hot summer of the election campaign. “Sunak has displayed some of the qualities you might hope to see in a good minister. But Miss Truss has demonstrated the qualities you need in a politician,” Curtice added. But whoever wins, recent polls of the wider electorate show the Conservatives face an increasing challenge to hold on to power for 12 years. Labor benefited from the attack on Johnson’s “zombie government” as the Conservatives bide their time to elect a new leader, mired in infighting despite the wider crisis. The main opposition party now boasts a double-digit lead over the Conservatives in the polls as the economic landscape becomes the bleakest since Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979. Millions say with their energy bills up 80 per cent since October – and even more since January – they face an agonizing choice between food and heating this winter. Truss has promised tax cuts, but critics note they will do nothing to benefit the poorest. It has previously ruled out direct donations, but this week pledged to “provide immediate support to ensure people don’t face unaffordable fuel bills” this winter.
