The new leader of the Conservative party, Rishi Sunak will today (Tuesday) be appointed the third prime minister of Britain this year after outgoing leader Liz Truss submits her resignation to King Charles III, Downing Street confirmed.
Truss is expected to hold a final cabinet meeting today before delivering a statement outside Number 10 around 10:15 am (0915 GMT). which will immediately be followed by Sunak being officially being appointed by the king and making his own televised remarks around 11:35 am (1035 GMT).
Sunak also vowed Monday to bring “stability and unity” at a time of economic crisis, after he was named the beleaguered Conservatives’ new leader.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the 42-year-old, Sunak is Hindu and he is now poised to become the UK’s first prime minister of colour following the implosion of Liz Truss’s premiership after just 44 days.
Truss will hold a final cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning before submitting her resignation to King Charles III, who will then appoint Sunak, Downing Street said.
The new leader will make his first remarks to the nation from outside Number 10 around 11:35 am (1035 GMT).
Penny Mordaunt, the last rival left in the party’s leadership race after Boris Johnson dramatically pulled out, failed to secure the necessary 100 nominations from her fellow MPs.
‘Rishi Sunak is therefore elected as leader of the Conservative party,’ senior backbencher Graham Brady said, as Mordaunt and Truss pledged their full support for Sunak.
However, some five hours after Brady’s announcement, there was still no word from Johnson — even as Sunak urged his warring party to ‘unite or die’, according to Tory MPs present in a closed-door meeting.
Addressing the public for the first time, Sunak said: ‘The United Kingdom is a great country, but there is no doubt we face a profound economic challenge.
‘We now need stability and unity and I will make it my utmost priority to bring our party and our country together,’ he said, rebuffing calls from opposition parties for an early general election.
Just seven weeks after he lost out to Truss following Johnson’s own removal from office, Sunak pulled off a stunning reversal in fortunes, and is vowing to do the same for Britain on a platform of fiscal responsibility.
But 62 percent of voters want a national election before the end of the year, pollster Ipsos said.
Another poll by YouGov said Labour leader Keir Starmer was favoured as the “best prime minister” in parliamentary 389 constituencies — while Sunak was favoured in 127.
Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon, whose nationalist government in Edinburgh wants to hold an independence referendum next year, was among the first to congratulate Sunak.