UK leadership race: Liz Truss surges ahead, wins endorsement from former rival
- A former rival for the top job, Tom Tugendhat, says Britain’s foreign secretary has the ‘resolution, determination, and passion’ to be prime minister
- Endorsement is a blow to ex-treasury chief Rishi Sunak, the other finalist – he is more popular with the general public, who don’t have a say
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss cemented her place as front-runner in the race to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson, winning an endorsement on Saturday from an influential former rival for the top job.
Tom Tugendhat, who was eliminated from the contest in earlier rounds of voting by Conservative lawmakers, said Truss had the “resolution, determination, and passion” to be prime minister.
The endorsement is a blow to ex-Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, the other finalist in the race for the next Conservative leader. The winner will be decided by votes from about 180,000 party members across the country.
Polls give Truss an edge with Tory members, though Sunak is more popular with the general public, who don’t have a say in the race. The winner will be announced September 5 and will automatically become prime minister, replacing Johnson, who stepped down as Conservative leader this month after three years in office following months of ethics scandals.
Tugendhat, a prominent figure from the party’s centrist “One Nation” group, wrote in The Times of London newspaper that Truss had “the foreign-affairs experience to build alliances and keep our country safe.”
