Rishi Sunak speaking at the launch of his campaign to be Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister, at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London
(Picture: PA)Conservative leadership hopefuls were on Tuesday scrambling to secure the support of 20 fellow MPs needed to enter the race to succeed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister.
With just hours until the deadline for nominations closes at 6pm, only three of the 11 candidates had reached the necessary threshold by 8am on Tuesday - former Chancellor and front runner Rishi Sunak, Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt and chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugendhat.
The powerful 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs raised the bar for nominations to 20 from 8 at the previous leadership contest in 2019 in an effort to reduce the sprawling field of candidates.
Under the rules, announced on Monday night, the first round of voting for those who secure the necessary number of backers will take place on Wednesday, before parliament breaks for the summer recess, with candidates requiring 30 votes from fellow Tory MPs to get into the second round.
A series of votes will then be held with the candidate scoring the lowest number knocked out until the final two are chosen to be put to the party’s membership. The identity of the new prime minister will be known by September 5, the 1922 committee said.
Nusrat Ghani, vice chair of the 1922 Committee, said securing the support of 20 fellow MPs to make it onto the Conservative leadership ballot “isn’t going to be an easy task.”
Asked how many candidates might get over the first hurdle of having 20 backers, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I’m wishing good luck to every candidate. There was a point where I think a number of us were getting incoming calls and I thought for a moment ‘gosh, we might even have 16’.
“But who knows, who knows? Securing the support of 20 backers isn’t going to be an easy task. At the moment, I believe there are 11, there could be 12.”
She said the committee “will do everything we can” to make sure the process is as “efficient and as swift” as possible.
She added that the 1922 Committee executive will not be publicly declaring who they are supporting in the leadership race “to make sure we’re doing everything we can appropriately without fear or favour”.
Nadhim Zahawi, who was appointed Chancellor last week before Mr Johnson announced he was quitting, said he believes he has the 20 Tory MP nominations required to move to the next stage of the leadership contest.
Fourteen of his colleagues have publicly come out to support the Chancellor so far.
“We have and we will be putting our nomination in later today,” he told the BBC. “I’m confident I have the backing of my colleagues.”
As of Tuesday morning, several Cabinet big hitters were still short of the cutoff point.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has 16, former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has 16, Kemi Badenoch has 14, Suella Braverman has 11, Sajid Javid 12 and Grant Shapps 8.
With candidates making eye catching pledges to secure backing from colleagues, all eyes at Westminster were on Mr Sunak on Tuesday who was preparing to formally launch his bid.
Mr Sunak’s rivals on the right of the party are vowing to slash taxes in a bid to boost flagging economic growth but while the former Chancellor will pledge to cut taxes - he insists he will only do it once inflation has been brought back under control. Inflation hit a 40-year high of 9.1 per cent in May and could hit 11 per cent in the autumn.
He was expected to say he has a plan to deal with the economic “headwinds” the country is facing, saying it is a matter of “when” not “if” the tax burden starts to fall.
He will receive heavyweight support from another ex-chancellor, Lord Lamont, who said Mr Sunak had the courage to take the “tough decisions” needed to deal the “extremely serious” economic situation. He also has the support of former Tory leader Lord Hague and another former Chancellor Lord Hammond.he “extremely serious” economic situation. He also hjas the support of former Tory leader Lord Hague and anmother former Chancellor Lord Hammond.
