British Conservative MPs they vote again this Monday to eliminate one of the five candidates that are still on the list to succeed the prime minister, Boris Johnson, in an increasingly tense contest with the suspension of the third debate.
(Also read: Who is the woman who is emerging as Boris Johnson’s successor?)
The Sky News network announced the cancellation of a debate scheduled for Tuesday night, after the two most prominent candidates, former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and current Foreign Minister Liz Truss, withdrew.
According to the chain’s internet portal, the prospect of a third debate makes the Conservatives fear that too many disagreements between them will be exposed and that this will weigh down the majority they have in Parliament.
The debate on Sunday night, the second exchange between the candidates, was much more dynamic than the first, before a decisive week at the end of which only two finalists will remain.
These two candidates must submit to the vote of the 200,000 conservative militants who will vote by mail and the result is expected on September 5.
(You can read: United Kingdom: Prime Minister candidates distance themselves from Johnson’s legacy)
This is how the second debate was lived
The five conservative candidates clashed this Sunday in the second television debate that directed most of the darts to the favorite of the race, the former Minister of Economy Rishi Sunak.
The cost of living was the first topic addressed by the presenter, Julie Etchingham, in a debate without an audience broadcast by the ITV channel full of scuffles between the five who want to occupy Number 10 Downing Street in seven weeks: Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch, and Tom Tugendhat.
The current Foreign Minister, Liz Truss -who is still in the government of the resigning Boris Johnson-, was the one who launched the first attack on Sunak with the accusation of “suffocating” the economy by raising taxes “to the highest levels that have been seen in 70 years.
(Read more: UK: Sunak and Mourdant lead race to succeed Johnson)
“This is not going to lead to economic growth,” Truss attacked. “You raised the Social Security rate even when people like me in Cabinet opposed it, because we couldn’t afford to fund the NHS through general taxes.
The favorite continued to defend, as he did in the first debate on Friday, his commitment to the difficult management of the pandemic, where he had to make unconventional decisions for the “tory” party with extensive aid to the population and companies.
“Inflation is what impoverishes everyone,” Sunak said, while defending that he would only cut taxes “in a responsible way.”
Kemi Badenoch, a right-wing candidate who casts herself as the “truth teller,” also seized on the need to end inflation, drawing on her life experiences working in burger joints and cleaning toilets to empathize with citizens.
Liz Truss insisted on presenting herself as the candidate who had already shown her ability to deliver, both in the Ukraine war and in the post-Brexit negotiations, dealing with the problems of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
(You can read: ‘I’m leaving with my head held high’, says Boris Johnson before Parliament)
In the middle of the debate, the presenter asked those who would put Boris Johnson in his cabinet to raise their hands in case he “wished to serve” and ran into five candidates who froze when they heard the forbidden name, without raising a finger. his lectern.
The will to cut with all Johnson’s legacy permeated the entire debate and it was the most repeated mantra by Tugendhat, president of the parliamentary committee on Foreign Affairs, who opted for “a new beginning” and repeated over and over again that it was “time for change”.
Even so, the “new beginning” of a clean slate was somewhat dissipated when the presenter asked them about the possibility of imminent general elections: none of the candidates plans to call them if they take over the leadership of the country, entrenching themselves in the “manifesto shared” (the electoral program) that pushes them to continue with a common cause.
Sunak leads the race
And it is that Truss and Sunak are throwing daggers since the beginning of the campaign.
The minister is the favorite of Johnson’s camp, which is convinced that Sunak had been waiting for the right moment for months before announcing his resignation on July 4, which precipitated the controversy that ended up forcing the prime minister to resign.
This version has been denied by supporters of Sunak.
Truss is looking to go on the offensive to make up lost ground, since in the first two votes she was relegated to third place, behind Mordaunt and Sunak, who almost certainly projects for the final.
(Also: UK: when will the name of the next prime minister be known?)
According to a survey carried out on Sunday of a thousand people by the Opinium firm, Sunak had a better performance in the debate, affirmed by 24% of the participants in the survey, compared to 19% who preferred Tom Tugendhat; 17%, to Mordaunt; 15% chose Truss and 12% opted for Kemi Badenoch.
In this oppressive atmosphere within the party, the 358 conservative deputies are called to continue the fight to eliminate one of the candidates from the five that remain in the race.
The results are expected around 19:00 GMT and the final rounds of voting are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
At the same time, on Monday Parliament plans to vote on a motion of censure against the government, which, unless there are surprises, does not represent any risk for the Executive.
*With information from AFP and Efe
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