Rishi Sunak Leads UK Leadership Contest In First Round

After two candidates were eliminated in the first round of voting to succeed Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party and PM, former British finance minister Rishi Sunak won the most votes.

Rishi received 88 votes, ahead of junior trade minister Penny Mordauntwith 67 and foreign secretary Liz Truss with 50. Former cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt and finance minister NadhimZahawi were eliminated.

KemiBadenoch received 40 votes, Tom Tugendhat received 37 votes, and SuellaBraverman received 32 votes.

Rishi Sunak, the Indian origin contender for the prime ministership of the UK, said he will run the British economy like former PM Margaret Thatcher, if he wins.

In his first campaign interview to The Daily Telegraph, the pro ruling Conservative party daily broadsheet, he remarked: "We will cut taxes and we will do it responsibly." He added: "That's my economic approach. I would describe it as common sense Thatcherism. I believe that's what she would have done.”

In informed groups, Sunak and Mordaunt are assessed to be neck and neck in terms of support from MPs, with the latter, according to Conservative Home, a Conservative news and analysis site, enjoying an edge among the wider party activists. The Conservative party is largely white, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant.