Esha Dev
The wait is over. It has been a tense few days since Liz Truss resigned as Prime Minister, and we have been waiting to hear who would take premiership. Esha Dev reports on how Rishi Sunak has become our new Prime Minister.
At first it looked like it would be tightly contested. Rishi Sunak was the first Conservative candidate to get 100 public nominations, with a Boris Johnson ally claiming that he also had 100. Penny Mordaunt was also in the race, and she had a chance with 90 nominations earlier today.
“I have sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do”
However, in the past few hours we have had potential candidates pulling out of the election, with Boris Johnson stating that “I have sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do.”
Johnson dropping out left us with Mordaunt and Sunak in the race which made it a very tense electoral campaign.
Sunak is the first South Asian Prime Minister
Just before 2pm today, Mordaunt dropped out of the race, with allegedly 96 nominations to her name. She stated that she is proud of the campaign that she ran, but she supports Sunak. Her choice to drop out confirms Sunak as the new Prime Minister.
Sunak is the first South Asian Prime Minister. Barnie Choudhary, editor at large for Eastern Eye newspaper, argued on BBC Radio 5 Live that while this appointment is good for representation and the visual of breaking glass ceilings, he will face scrutiny as “people of colour are held to a higher standard than people who are white” and that he could face accusations that “he is out of touch with reality, because of the privilege that he holds.”
As of now we are waiting for our new Prime Minister to address the Tory MPs. However, there is huge tension surrounding his appointment. There has been contention within the Tory party due to the fact some members do not see Sunak as sufficiently British enough to be PM. Furthermore, he is entering a tumultuous job, where he is the 3rd PM this year and, despite his appointment, Labour and the Scottish National Party have amplified their call for a general election.
Esha Dev
Featured image courtesy of Nick Kane via Unsplash.com. Image licence found here. No changes were made to this image.
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