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Amid a cost of living crisis and poor electoral performance from the Conservative party, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson finally succumbed to calls for his resignation, leaving his fractured party to hold a leadership contest. At the beginning of the contest, eight candidates had confirmed their intentions to run for the top job, but now that number has been reduced to five, leaving many wondering who will be victorious.
On the 7th of July, Prime Minister Johnson announced his resignation after days of mass resignations from his cabinet, with many high-profile ministers calling for his resignation. This began with Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who resigned from their roles over revelations about the Chris Pincher scandal. This scandal led to Johnson admitting it was a mistake to appoint Pincher as Chief Whip following sexual harassment allegations against him. These resignations from senior ministers led to several junior ministers following suit, including the Security Minister, Damian Hinds.
Following these desertions, the prime minister appointed Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi to be Chancellor. However, just two days later, Zahawi joined the growing number of Conservative MPs calling for Johnson to resign.
Who are the five hopefuls still in the running for the prime ministership?
As of today (14/07/2022), Tom Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch, Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt, and Rishi Sunak are the MPs still in the running to be the UK’s next leader. These five remain after Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, Jeremy Hunt, and Attorney General Suella Braverman were eliminated in the first two rounds of voting this week.
According to polls, Mordaunt and Sunak are the front runners in the contest, so what do these two hopefuls stand for?
Currently, Mordaunt holds the position of minister of state for trade policy, a position she has held since the 2021 cabinet reshuffle. Her campaign got off to a rocky start, however, with her announcement video containing sprinter Oscar Pistorious—who murdered his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013—and athlete Johnnie Peacock, who requested to be removed from the video.
Despite this, Mordaunt has proved successful, with polls from the polling group, YouGov, showing her in the lead against every other candidate in the final two. Her bid includes promises to return to a traditional version of conservatism with low taxes and a small state. She invoked the memory of former leader Margaret Thatcher too, saying that one of her most formative experiences was watching a fleet leave Portsmouth Harbour in 1982 to fight in the Falkland War.
Her campaign has also been targeted because of the topic of transgender rights. Last year, she was praised by LGBTQ groups after saying “trans men are men and trans women are women”. However, this has now been used by her fellow candidates to attack her campaign. She appeared on LBC on Tuesday to clarify her position, saying that she “never supported self ID”. Theresa May’s government had initially planned to reform the Gender Recognition Act, enabling self-identification for transgender people, meaning they would be able to identify as male or female without a medical diagnosis. These proposals were later abandoned by Conservative ministers. Mordaunt did clarify that she wants it to be easier for transgender people to access services that would allow them to change their gender on driving licences or passports, for example.
Mordaunt was also heavily criticised for a Twitter thread she posted in response to the question “Do I know what a woman is?” Here she expressed her opposition to so-called “trans orthodoxy”. She commented “Some people born male and who have been through the gender recognition process are also legally female. That DOES NOT mean they are biological women, like me.” Mordaunt then referenced an enquiry into “[the] surge in girls wanting to change gender” that she had launched in 2018. Also emphasised was her role in removing gender-neutral language from maternity legislation.
Mordaunt has so far been successful, remaining in second place in the first two rounds of this contest, with 67 votes received in round one and 83 votes in round two.
Rishi Sunak was the former Chancellor under Prime Minister Boris Johnson, also resigning in the aftermath of the Chris Pincher scandal. His campaign got off to a slow start, with many mocking his campaign logo, including GB News’ Darren Grimes, who jibed that it reflects the economic state of the country during Sunak’s time as Chancellor.
Sunak is currently enjoying broad support from the parliamentary party, holding first place in the first two leadership rounds with him gaining 88 of Tory MPs’ votes in round one and 101 of their votes in the second round. Despite this, however, polling shows him unpopular with members of his party, showing him losing to all of the other candidates still in the race.
One of the main focuses of his campaign is to “rebuild the economy”, something that has attracted criticism since he led the country’s economic policy throughout the pandemic. He also seeks to “reunite the country” and not bow down to the “fairy tales” of tax cuts to solve the country’s problems.
According to an ally of Sunak, he was “critical of recent trends to erase women via the use of clumsy, gender-neutral language”. In his manifesto for women’s rights, Sunak also opposes “biological males” being allowed to compete in women’s sports, and will call on schools to be more careful about how they teach about sex and gender. Sunak has previously stated: “I think biology is critically important as we think about some of the very practical functions, like toilets or sports.”
The race is far from over, but the frontrunners have already become clear. All five hopefuls have been invited to a debate on Channel 4 on the evening of July 15th, which could affect the public perception of each candidate before the Prime Minister is confirmed on the 5th of September.