Rishi Sunak enters race to be next prime minister
by 0 
Rishi Sunak has announced his bid to become the next Conservative leader and prime minister, six weeks after Liz Truss beat him to the top job.
The former chancellor has put himself forward for the second time in a matter of months after the extraordinary resignation of Ms Truss on Thursday, 44 days into her premiership.
According to Sky News analysis, Mr Sunak has 124 nominations allowing him to proceed in the race.
The race to be Tory leader – next UK prime minister latest updates
Among those who have publicly voiced their support are: Kemi Badenoch, the international trade secretary; Steve Barclay, the former health secretary; Lord Frost, former Brexit minister; Dominic Raab, the former foreign secretary; and Sajid Javid, the former health secretary.
In the last leadership election, Mr Sunak had 137 nominations, Ms Truss 113 and Penny Mordaunt 105. Mr Sunak lost to Ms Truss in the final round of voting by Tory members.
Ms Truss won on a mandate to slash taxes to boost economic growth, but this proved to be her downfall after her mini-budget unleashed turmoil in the financial markets, sent the pound to record lows against the dollar and forced the Bank of England to intervene.
She was eventually forced to row back on almost all of her pledges after sacking Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor and appointing Jeremy Hunt, a Sunak ally, to restore economic stability.
During the previous contest, Mr Sunak called the tax cuts proposed by Ms Truss as “immoral” and warned about the need for fiscal responsibility.
Read more:
Can Sunak stop the Boris bandwagon?
Who is former chancellor Rishi Sunak?
