Sunak wins final round, to face Truss in last leg

July 20, 2022 21:07

Rishi Sunak on Wednesday clinched his place for the final leg of the race to succeed Boris Johnson and will go head-to-head with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss as one of two finalists to take charge as Conservative Party leader and British Prime Minister.

Sunak won the fifth and final voting round of Tory MPs with a resounding 137 votes, while second-placed Truss won the support of 113 MPs.

Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt was knocked out of the race after coming in third with 105 votes.

The 42-year-old British Indian former Chancellor, who has topped every voting round so far, added 19 votes to his Tuesday tally of 118 and comfortably crossed the 120 MPs mark seen as the threshold to confirm a place in the final showdown.

Sunak and Truss are now set for their first head-on clash in a live televised debate scheduled on the BBC for Monday.

Earlier, outgoing Prime Minister Johnson used his last Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons to bid farewell to the top job with the Spanish phrase 'hasta la vista, baby'.

In his final speech, he had words of advice for his successor: "I want to use the last few seconds, Mr Speaker, to give some words of advice to my successor, whoever he or she may be. Number one, stay close to the Americans, stick up for the Ukrainians, stick up for freedom and democracy everywhere. Cut taxes and deregulate wherever you can to make this the greatest place to live and invest, which it is." -- PTI

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