Former UK Treasury secretary Rishi Sunak has won the race to be leader of the Conservative Party and will become Britain’s next prime minister – the third this year.
The former Chancellor of the Exchequer is now set to become Britain’s first prime minister of colour, and faces the task of stabilizing the fractured Conservative Party and country at a time of economic and political turmoil.
His only rival, Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt, withdrew from the contest only minutes before the announcement was made by the 1922 Committee that decides on the leadership of the Conservative party.
As leader of the ruling party, Sunak will take over as prime minister from Liz Truss, who quit last week after 45 tumultuous days in office.
— Penny Mordaunt (@PennyMordaunt) October 24, 2022
Rishi Sunak's leadership
For Jeremy Stubbs, head of the Association of British Conservatives in Paris and deputy editor of Le Causeur Magazine, UK politics has had "a lot of charisma over the last few years ... what we need now is more boring."
"As a rather technocratic figure who has experience as he has actually been the Chancellor of the Exchequer," Stubbs told RFI, "he knows how things work.
"He was one who predicted quite accurately that Liz Truss' formula would kill the patient. So he's probably the best we've got right now. We can expect him to handle the economy with prudence. And the talk is that he will keep the same Chancellor of the Exchequer as now, Jeremy Hunt."
Rishi Sunak to become next UK Prime Minister
End to financial chaos
Sunak had been the strong favourite as the governing Conservative Party sought stability at a time of immense economic challenges and after months of chaos that consumed the past two leaders.
Sunak’s position strengthened after former leader Boris Johnson dropped out of the Conservative Party leadership contest.
Sunak lost out to Truss in the last Conservative election, but his party and the country now appear eager for a safe pair of hands to tackle soaring energy and food prices and a looming recession.
The UK is bracing for a painful budget set to be unveiled by Hunt on 31 October, in what is expected to be a bitter pill for the British public to swallow.
How will that affect the arrival of Rishi Sunak into 10 Downing Street and his desire to unite the country and get the economy back on track?
For Stubb's, the severe public spending cuts being predicted are "probably the best start that he could hope for.
"Only a week or two ago we were on the brink of disaster. So being in the drudgery of austerity is slightly better than where we were, whether things can improve from there, we can only hope so...it's boring competency that might at least get us through until Christmas," Stubbs said.
After all, Sunak is the politician that steered the UK economy through the coronavirus pandemic, winning praise for his financial support for laid-off workers and shuttered businesses.
BREAKING: Rishi Sunak will be the next Prime Minister after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 24, 2022
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UK, EU relations – things can only get better
But, internationally, the UK has struggled with the post-Brexit Northern Ireland protocol and has been constantly at logger-heads with Brussels over the issue of checking goods coming across the Irish Sea onto the island of Ireland – divided by British and EU jurisdictions.
And cross-channel relations between London and Paris have been on a rocky road for years over migration and fishing rights.
"We can hope that they will get better...they seem to have been getting better since Boris Johnson left. There is every reason why they should be better," Stubbs says.
"Because of the state of the economy in the UK, we can't afford to have bad relations with our closest partners...And those relations need to be good," he concludes.
From the outset of his bid for Number 10, Sunak has promised “integrity, professionalism and accountability” if he forms a government – a nod to the growing to desire for a leader who can tackle the country's problems.
The 42-year-old MP is now the Conservative Party leader and will be asked by King Charles III to form a government.
He will become the prime minister in a handover of power from Truss either later Monday or on Tuesday.
Full Interview: Rishi Sunak will replace Liz Truss as the UK's next Prime Minister - Jeremy Stubbs
