Rishi Sunak set to become Britain's next prime minister
Former finance minister Rishi Sunak is set to become the UK's next prime minister, after his only other challenger failed to get the backing of enough Conservative MPs.
There was a 15:00 CET deadline for any candidates to replace Liz Truss to submit their nomination papers, and the names of a hundred Conservative politicians who were backing them.
In a short statement, Tory party official Sir Graham Brady said only one name had received enough support.
Rishi Sunak's only other potential challenger, Penny Mordaunt, wrote on Twitter that Sunak had her "full support."
"We all owe it to the country, to each other and to Rishi to unite and work together for the good of the nation."
Sunak was a former finance minister in Boris Johnson's government, but quit in July, helping trigger a rebellion that bought Johnson down.
He will be Britain's third prime minister in just seven weeks as he succeeds Liz Truss. The 42-year-old multi-millionaire will be the UK's first PM from a British-Asian background.
Rishi Sunak already set out many of his policy positions when he was in the race to succeed Boris Johnson, and although some of these might change, his previous comments can give some indication of the direction his new administration might take:
In August, Sunak said the country faced a “profound economic crisis”.
As finance minister between February 2020 and July 2022, he set Britain on course to have its biggest tax burden since the 1950s.
He also set out higher public spending but simultaneously promised more discipline and to cut waste.
During the summer leadership campaign he criticised Truss’s tax-cutting agenda, saying he would instead only cut taxes once inflation had been brought under control. At the time he outlined a plan to
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