Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak enter the final battle for the UK PM Race

• Image Credit: Internet

• Jul 20, 2022 | Poonam Nath

 Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are the final two to embody Britain.

Digital Desk: Former finance minister Rishi Sunak and foreign secretary Liz Truss have won the final legislative vote to become Britain's next prime minister, kicking off the final stage of the race to replace Boris Johnson.

Sunak has led in all rounds of voting among conservative lawmakers, but Truss appears to have gained the upper hand among the 200,000 governing party members who will ultimately decide the winner.

In the final stretch of a weeks-long campaign, Sunak, a former Goldman Sachs banker who has raised the tax burden to the highest level since the 1950s, will face Truss, a Brexit convert who has pledged to cut taxes and regulations.

Whoever wins the election on September 5 will inherit some of the most difficult conditions in Britain in decades. Inflation is on track to reach 11% annually, growth is slowing, industrial action is on the rise, and the pound is trading near historic lows against the dollar.

Britain, aided by Truss, took a hard line against Brussels in its post-Brexit negotiations over Northern Ireland, drawing legal action from the EU and jeopardising future trade ties.

Eleven candidates were initially nominated, but junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt was eliminated in the fifth and final ballot of Conservative lawmakers on Wednesday. Sunak received 137 votes, compared to Truss's 113 and Mordaunt's 105.

According to polls, Truss would defeat Sunak in the party members' vote, allowing conservatives to elect a leader who was not the most popular choice among lawmakers.

Shortly after the votes were announced, Truss thanked some lawmakers outside Parliament. "I'm here to win," she told reporters. She said in a statement: "As prime minister, I would hit the ground running from day one, unite the party, and govern in accordance with Conservative values."

Sunak wrote on Twitter: "I am grateful for my colleagues' confidence in me today." I will work day and night to spread our message across the country."

The two finalists will now begin weeks of hustings across the country before the party's membership is decided.

"This has been one of the most unpredictable contests in recent history for the next Conservative leader," said Chris Hopkins, political research director at polling firm Savanta ComRes. "This has been very different from previous contests where you had a clear favourite who ran away with it."

With Johnson still popular with many in the party and country, and the party increasingly divided between its various factions, the vitriol between the candidates raises the question of how well any new leader will be able to govern.

So far, the race has been dominated by pledges or lack thereof, to reduce taxes at a time when many parts of the state are struggling to function, as well as defence spending, energy policy, Brexit, and social issues such as transgender rights.

Because both candidates hold senior positions in Johnson's administration, they may be limited in their ability to position themselves as a fresh start.