LONDON — With Boris Johnson out of the picture, the Tory party’s heavy hitters are preparing to vie for his job — along with quite a few lightweights, too. Already, the field of potential candidates for the leadership of the Conservative Party is shaping up to be bigger than ever, as aspiring MPs weigh up their chances. With no front-runner to succeed Johnson, the contest is wide open. POLITICO takes you through the likely runners and riders so far.
Ben Wallace
Ben Wallace | WPA Pool/Getty Images
The early favorite according to bookies and pollsters, the 52-year-old defense secretary has boosted his reputation through a strong and politicized response to the war in Ukraine as well as an emotional defense of Afghans who helped British troops in Afghanistan during the war country. evacuation last year.
He is unusual among senior Tories in that he did not go to university, attended military school and joined the Scots Guards, with whom he served in Germany, Cyprus, Belize and Northern Ireland during the 1990s.
His position as defense secretary came as a reward for running Johnson’s campaign for the Conservative leadership in 2019. In cabinet, he has consistently pushed for more defense investment – a background that will help him win the support of some Tory MPs, who say he is the right leader for wartime. The traditional party base will also warm to his military career.
At COP26, Wallace recognized the need to reduce military emissions and during his tenure as Defense Secretary the military invested in prototype electric hybrid armored, logistical and reconnaissance vehicles.
The MP for Wyre and Preston North voted against the legalization of same-sex marriage in England and Wales and opposed the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the armed forces. But he later described those views as “rubbish” and launched an independent review into LGBTQ+ veterans affected by the military’s ban on homosexuality lifted in 2000.
Wallace has yet to make a pitch for the lead, but he hasn’t ruled it out.
Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid | Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images The first cabinet minister to rise on Tuesday, Javid seems to have read the mood of the Conservative Party perfectly. His decision to resign as health secretary triggered the flood of resignations that eventually toppled Johnson. Arguably, he has done more than any senior Tory figure to set the course in recent days – publicly shaming his former Cabinet colleagues into action in a resignation statement in the House of Commons on Wednesday. Within hours, a group of them were at No. 10 telling Johnson to go. Javid has led six government departments under the last three Tory prime ministers, having also served as secretary of state for culture, business, housing, home affairs and chancellor of the exchequer. The most common criticism leveled at him is that he has not served in a cabinet long enough to make an impact. He resigned as chancellor in February 2020 in a power struggle with Johnson and his then top aide Dominic Cummings. Johnson brought him back into government as health secretary in June 2021. The son of Pakistani immigrants, Javid attended a state-funded school and worked in finance in the City of London, New York and Singapore before entering politics. An avowed Thatcherite and admirer of the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, Javid supports a small state, low taxes and restrictions on strikes affecting public services. In April, he admitted that he held non-dom status for six years before his political career, which allowed him to legally avoid tax on overseas earnings. On Brexit, the Bromsgrove MP campaigned before backing Remain in the 2016 referendum. He later said he would be ready to take Britain out of the EU without a deal when he is elected Conservative leader in 2019 – a donor-funded bid of the Tories who support Remain and Leave. Brexit watchers should not expect him to bring Britain back on track with the EU: in January 2020 he said the UK should stay out of the single market and customs union. Javid has not declared his intention to run this time, but his resignation announcement in the Commons on Wednesday was seen by many as a veiled leadership.
Rishi Sunak
Rishi Sunak | Ian Forsyth/Getty Images The former chancellor, who resigned nine minutes after Javid on Tuesday, has bounced back after his wife’s tax scandal took a big hit to his reputation and is now a serious front-runner to become leader. His youth — he’s 42 — is seen as both a pro and a con. Sunak held the second-highest position in the government, in which he tried to keep public spending and taxes low despite constant pressure from Johnson to waste cash in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. But “Dishy Rishi” – as he has been dubbed for his slick personal branding stamped on major Treasury announcements – may have to convince fellow Tories that he has sufficient political experience. Some believe he needs to spend more time in other government departments before rising to the top. Although he supports Brexit, he reportedly opposed calls from David Frost, Britain’s former chief Brexit negotiator, to suspend the Northern Ireland protocol last November and raised concerns about the government’s current unilateral plan to deactivate parts of it, in through fears it could plunge Britain into a trade war with the EU at a time of huge economic uncertainty. But he also said the protocol is causing economic and political harm and needs fixing. There is speculation that she could eventually run on a joint ticket with Javid, with whom she shares many things in common, including an Asian and financial background, as well as a love of the Star Wars films.
Liz Truss
Liz Truss | Victoria Jones/WPA Pool/Getty Images The foreign secretary, who cut short a trip to a G20 meeting in Indonesia to return to London, is a Tory favorite but will have to work hard to win the support of the parliamentary party. Truss supported remaining in the EU in the 2016 referendum, although she has long been a Eurosceptic. Her ascension to the prime ministership would likely prolong the chill that characterizes post-Brexit UK-EU relations. She is the minister responsible for the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol bill, which Brussels opposes. Truss began preparing for a leadership bid months ago, with an aggressive social media campaign and reaching out to Brexit hardliners in the Tory party, to whom she showed a draft of her bill before presenting it to parliament. The daughter of leftist parents, Truss comes from the libertarian wing of the Conservatives. He is an experienced cabinet member having led Britain’s international trade, justice and environment policies. In that role, he stated that he fully believed that climate change is happening and that humans have contributed to it.
Nadhim Zahawi
Nadhim Zahawi | Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images Appointed chancellor after Sunak’s dramatic resignation, Zahawi has been credited with successfully launching the COVID-19 vaccine and with a self-made background as a corporate leader. Born in Baghdad, he moved to Britain in the mid-1970s with his Kurdish family fleeing Saddam Hussein’s regime. In 2000, he co-founded the polling company YouGov which he led until February 2010, the year he was elected MP for Stratford-on-Avon. Reportedly one of the wealthiest lawmakers in the Westminster parliament, Zahawi’s challenges will include handling questions about his own financial background. His finances were reportedly investigated by the National Crime Agency, he faced scrutiny for financial dealings with offshore companies and took two jobs at Gulf Keystone Petroleum – including one after the MP was elected – that cast doubt on his commitment to the fight against climate change. On Wednesday, he promised a review of tax policies to cut them and revealed he had spent months working with Conservative general Lynton Crosby on a leadership bid.
Penny Mordant
Penny Mordaunt | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Early in her career, Mordaunt’s main claim to fame was when she donned a swimsuit and took part in a television diving show called Splash! He also won a bogus Commons speech in which he repeatedly used a series of sexual slang terms (“cock”, “folk” and “lay”) during a debate on poultry welfare. Apparently he did it for a gamble.
The trade secretary and former defense secretary is well-liked among MPs in the north of England – the area known as the Red Wall which swung from Labor to the Conservatives in the 2019 general election.
She has a long association with the military and has lived in the maritime city of Portsmouth, where she is an MP, since she was two.
Mordaunt is a Brexit campaigner who accused the EU of “pushing its regulatory system on the rest of the world” and described Britain’s exit as “a huge opportunity”.
She has been praised for her support of the LGBTQ+ community and became the first minister to use sign language in the delivery box.
More recently, he opposed Sunak’s decision to raise National Insurance and corporate tax.
Mordaunt has yet to declare her intention to run, but the YouGov poll places her second in the popularity chart, behind Wallace and ahead of Sunak and Truss.
Tom Tugdenhat
Tom Tugendhat | Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images The Commons foreign affairs chairman, who comes from the Tory centrist One Nation group, has expressed interest in the prime minister’s job and called for a “clean start”. His lack of experience in the Cabinet…
