Rishi Sunak vs Boris Johnson: Who has a stronger chance of succeeding Liz Truss as next UK PM?

A political crisis has been triggered in the United Kingdom after Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned from the post after her short 45-day tenure after the recent elections. Truss resigned after facing massive backlash for making a U-turn on economical reforms in Britain, paving way for a new PM to take the chair.

After Liz Truss resigned from the top post shortly after her appointment as the Prime Minister, local media reports have suggested several names from the Conservative Party who can take her place in the coming weeks, one of which is Rishi Sunak.

According to reports, Indian-origin Rishi Sunak has emerged as the top choice of Tory leaders to be the next PM. If he is elected to the top post, Rishi Sunak will be the first ever Indian-origin Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Sunak had earlier lost the UK PM elections to Liz Truss but now has gained the trust of other Conservative Party leaders after Truss’s decisions urged all Tory MPs to turn against her. Another candidate for the UK PM race is former PM, Boris Johnson.

According to Sky Bet, Rishi Sunak currently has the odds of 13/8 to become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, former UK PM Boris Johnson has the odds of 16/1 to become the British PM once again. Other candidates who are in the running are Penny Mordaunt and Ben Wallace.

Sunak became Treasury chief in 2020 and steered Britain's slumping economy through the coronavirus pandemic. He oversaw billions of pounds in government handouts to help businesses and workers hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

He had led the rebellion against Boris Johnson but lost out against Truss during the Tory MP voting, as he was being considered “untrustworthy” for ousting Johnson from the PM post. Sunak, 42, came second to Truss in the last Conservative leadership race, gathering 60,399 votes compared to her 81,326.

In the past year, he faced heavy criticism for being slow to respond to Britain's cost-of-living crisis. His reputation also took a hit after he was fined by police for attending a lockdown-flouting birthday party at Downing Street in June 2020.

(With PTI inputs)

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