Former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak or current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will be announced as Britain’s new prime minister later on Monday.
Dan Kitwood/Staff/Stringer/Getty Images
LONDON – The UK’s next Prime Minister will be announced on Monday after a grueling and sometimes bitter leadership contest within the ruling Conservative Party.
The announcement is expected at 12.30pm London time and will be delivered by Graham Brady, Chair of the 1922 Committee, a group of Conservative MPs who are not Government Ministers.
The leadership election was triggered when current Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation on July 7. It came after a wave of ministers and backbenchers resigned, many of whom had expressed a lack of confidence in their party leader.
Johnson stayed on as acting prime minister while the party decided between the candidates.
He has not yet formally left office as he must first attend an audience with Queen Elizabeth II to officially tell her he is stepping down.
Sunak or Truss?
The next prime minister will be either current Foreign Minister Liz Truss or former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak after the two made it to the final stages of the eight-candidate leadership contest.
Truss was a firm frontrunner in competition among Conservative Party members.
Truss and Sunak have faced off at 12 campaign rallies over the past eight weeks in an attempt to win over party members.
They have set out their views on the Bank of England’s mandate, tax cuts and the controversial plan to deport migrants to Rwanda, and the deepening of the UK’s cost of living crisis.
The result was voted solely by Conservative Party members – that’s around 180,000 people who pay to be a member of the party at last count, out of the 65 million people who live in Britain
Voting was conducted as a mail-in ballot, which ended on September 2nd.
Next Steps
Once the most popular candidate has been announced, the formal process of appointing a prime minister begins.
It will include a trip to Balmoral Castle in Scotland for the official ‘hand-kissing’ meeting with the Queen, where the monarch will ask for the formation of a new government.
This is a break with tradition as her 15th Prime Minister will be the first not to be formally appointed at the Queen’s London home, Buckingham Palace.
The 96-year-old was reportedly experiencing “episodic mobility problems,” Buckingham Palace announced on May 9, possibly explaining the new Prime Minister’s decision to travel to her rather than make the 500-mile trip to London herself.
An “advertising budget” from the new prime minister?
The cost of living crisis is likely to be high on the agenda for anyone moving to 10 Downing Street as UK energy bills are set to rise by 80% in October and investors warn inflation could top 22% next year.
The next prime minister will offer support for energy costs, Alan Custis, head of UK equities at Lazard Asset Management, predicted in CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe last week.
“As Prime Minister, you want to create a honeymoon period,” Custis said, “and there could be a general election.”
“No matter what candidate comes in, there’s potential for a wasted budget once they come in,” he said.
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