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Tory leadership live: Rishi Sunak passes threshold of 100 supporters as Lord Frost says party ‘must move on’ from Boris Johnson | Politics

Lord Frost, Johnson’s Brexit negotiator, backs Sunak

The former cabinet minister David Frost has announced he is backing Rishi Sunak.

Frost, who was Boris Johnson’s Brexit negotiator, said the Conservative party must “move on” and get behind a capable leader who can deliver.

Boris Johnson will always be a hero for delivering Brexit.

But we must move on. It is simply not right to risk repeating the chaos & confusion of the last year.

The Tory Party must get behind a capable leader who can deliver a Conservative programme. That is @RishiSunak. 1/2

— David Frost (@DavidGHFrost) October 22, 2022

Boris Johnson will always be a hero for delivering Brexit.

But we must move on. It is simply not right to risk repeating the chaos & confusion of the last year.

The Tory Party must get behind a capable leader who can deliver a Conservative programme. That is @RishiSunak. 1/2

— David Frost (@DavidGHFrost) October 22, 2022

Key events

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Thousands of pro-European supporters took to the streets of London today as part of the national march calling for the UK to rejoin the EU.

Pro-EU supporters rally from Hyde park to Parliament Square. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock
National rejoin EU march
National rejoin EU march Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock
National region EU march in London.
National region EU march in London. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock
A pro-EU demonstrator with a banner.
A pro-EU demonstrator with a banner. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Rex/Shutterstock

Andrew Anthony

Andrew Anthony

It may not have been the most troubling feature of Liz Truss’s premiership, but the need to check whether she was still in office was a gathering distraction for anyone, including her cabinet colleagues, interested in who was running the country. A month ago, after the disastrous mini-budget, no one was sure if she could survive until the next election. Thereafter, the timeframe rapidly narrowed until the question was whether she would last the day.

Liz Truss announces her resignation as prime minister.
Liz Truss announces her resignation as prime minister. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

There was a brief holiday from reality during the party conference in Birmingham, when the ship had already hit the iceberg and yet, in a surreal atmosphere of denialism, the band played on. But on Thursday, six days after she had been forced to sack her ideological soulmate Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor, and the day after home secretary Suella Braverman resigned, we got the answer.

But how did a politician with 12 years’ experience in government, almost 10 of them in the cabinet, someone who’d served as foreign secretary, international trade secretary, justice secretary, environment secretary and chief secretary to the Treasury, come to make such a historic mess of the top job?

When asked to describe Truss, two former Conservative government ministers both used the same word: weird. “She doesn’t have any friends. She’s just weird,” one said. “She sits far too close to you,” said another. “And when she talks to you, she keeps repeating your name. It’s weird.”

Read the full story here:

Here’s some reaction to the endorsement of Rishi Sunak by former chief Brexit negotiator and Cabinet Office minister David Frost.

Anushka Asthana from ITV says it’s a significant move.

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg says Frost’s backing suggests some on the rightwing of Liz Truss’s backers are choosing Sunak over Boris Johnson.

This is more surprising however – suggests some on the defeated Truss right wing are going across to Sunak, not Johnson … https://t.co/hFaDUUr14g

— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) October 22, 2022

Jack Blanchard from Politico says Frost’s endorsement will be a painful one for his former boss.

Reminder that David Frost was an obscure whisky salesman when Boris Johnson made him the UK’s chief Brexit negotiator, then his national security advisor, then a senior No.10 aide, then a life peer.

So much for loyalty. This one is going to sting 👇 https://t.co/4gNIXI2aOf

— Jack Blanchard (@Jack_Blanchard_) October 22, 2022

What happens next?

Miranda Bryant

With nominations for the next prime minister and Conservative party leader well under way, Rishi Sunak was in the lead on Saturday, having already passed the threshold of support from 100 Tory MPs, followed by Boris Johnson and Penny Mordaunt. What happens next?

As the party prepares to choose its third leader in little more than six weeks, here’s a step-by-step guide to the process.

How will Liz Truss’s successor be chosen?

Nominations are flooding in, having opened on Thursday night, and will close at 2pm on Monday. To get to the next stage, candidates must have the support of a minimum of 100 Conservative MPs. There are 357 in total.

What happens when nominations close?

If only one candidate manages to gain the support of at least 100 of their colleagues by the deadline, then that person will become the next leader of the Conservative party and the country.

If more than one candidate passes the 100 threshold, there will be a vote among Tory MPs between 3.30pm and 5.30pm on Monday, with results announced at 6pm.

If there are three candidates, the person with the fewest votes will be eliminated and there will be a further round of votes between the final two between 6.30pm and 8.30pm, with the result announced at 9pm.

Then what?

If, after that process, two candidates still remain, meaning nobody has withdrawn, the 1922 Committee – the Conservative party’s 18-member executive, which is running the process – is leaving the final decision to party members. Last time around, in September, they voted for Truss, despite Sunak leading among MPs.

This final round of voting by qualifying members, would, the party says, be done using a “secure online voting” system, with the ballot closing at 11am on Friday. The result would then be announced later the same day.

There would also be at least one hustings between the final two, expected to be broadcast by the BBC.

When will it all be over?

The winner will be declared by the end of Friday.

Could Conservative party members be left out of the process?

Leaving them out of the voting process entirely would probably require a change to the party’s constitution, but there are two ways they could not be called upon to vote. One would be if one of the last two candidates pull out, as Andrea Leadsom did in 2016 when Theresa May became leader. The second would be if only one candidate makes it above the 100-vote threshold from MPs.

Once a final candidate is settled on, how do they become PM?

The winner of the contest will become party. The King will ask them to form a government, making them Britain’s next prime minister.

Could there be a general election?

Despite calls from the Labour party, the appointment of a new prime minister does not require a general election. The next general election could officially be as late as January 2025.

Desmond Swayne, Tory MP for New Forest West, has announced he’s backing Rishi Sunak.

Swayne backed Suella Braverman during the previous Conservative leadership election, before throwing his support behind Sunak in the run-off between Sunak and Liz Truss.

The Guardian’s Philip Oltermann has shared a photo of today’s front page of the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, showing a picture of Boris Johnson with the headline simply saying: “Seriously?”

MP for South Norfolk Richard Bacon says he’s backing Rishi Sunak.

I am backing @RishiSunak to be Conservative Leader and Prime Minister because he will lead a government we can trust to provide stability, competence, good judgement and strong leadership.

— Richard Bacon (@richardbaconmp) October 22, 2022

David Johnston has become the latest Tory MP to announce his support for Rishi Sunak, who he described as having the “right combination of ability, experience and judgment” to lead the country.

By our count, Johnston is the 105th MP to have publicly thrown their weight behind the former chancellor.

I’ll be backing @RishiSunak next week. He has the right combination of ability, experience and judgement to tackle the challenges the country is facing at the moment, particularly the economic challenges – as he showed during Covid and in forecasting the events of recent weeks.

— David Johnston OBE MP (@david4wantage) October 22, 2022

Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff backs Rishi Sunak

Steve Barclay, Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff, has tweeted his support for Rishi Sunak.

I’m backing @RishiSunak to be leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister. Our country faces significant economic challenges and Rishi is best placed to address this.

— Steve Barclay (@SteveBarclay) October 22, 2022

ITV’s Robert Peston writes that Boris Johnson may very well win if he chooses to run for the Tory leadership campaign, but whether he would win a general election is another matter.

Johnson had three advantages during the 2019 election campaign, he says: the pledge to “get Brexit done”, Jeremy Corbyn’s unpopularity, and a public sector balance sheet that made it possible for him to promise lots of public spending.

It is hard to exaggerate how big a moment this is for the Conservative Party, and for Boris Johnson. If he chooses to run to be leader and PM, he may well win – thanks to his popularity among Tory members (though considerably fewer than half Tory MPs are thought to…

— Robert Peston (@Peston) October 22, 2022

This is no longer the case. Any new campaign led by Johnson would be about his qualities and his mixed record, Peston continues. The biggest question is whether he is able to unite the party at a time when so many Tory MPs did not support him.

it will never be boring for journalists like me. But should the Tory Party choose a leader where the risk is high of Tory MPs refusing to work for him and some could even resign the Tory whip? One former Tory foreign secretary William Hague warns of a possible “death spiral”…

— Robert Peston (@Peston) October 22, 2022

in the interests of a faction-riven Tory party to choose as its leader someone who only recently sacrificed his moral authority to insist on loyalty from colleagues? What a moment for Johnson and his party.

— Robert Peston (@Peston) October 22, 2022

Lord Frost, Johnson’s Brexit negotiator, backs Sunak

The former cabinet minister David Frost has announced he is backing Rishi Sunak.

Frost, who was Boris Johnson’s Brexit negotiator, said the Conservative party must “move on” and get behind a capable leader who can deliver.

Boris Johnson will always be a hero for delivering Brexit.

But we must move on. It is simply not right to risk repeating the chaos & confusion of the last year.

The Tory Party must get behind a capable leader who can deliver a Conservative programme. That is @RishiSunak. 1/2

— David Frost (@DavidGHFrost) October 22, 2022

Boris Johnson will always be a hero for delivering Brexit.

But we must move on. It is simply not right to risk repeating the chaos & confusion of the last year.

The Tory Party must get behind a capable leader who can deliver a Conservative programme. That is @RishiSunak. 1/2

— David Frost (@DavidGHFrost) October 22, 2022

The former Telegraph editor and close Boris Johnson ally Lord Charles Moore has suggested that Johnson should “sit out” the leadership contest.

In a piece published last night, Moore said the former PM should “sit this one out” partly because “there is no evidence that, as prime minister, Boris ever took care for the public finances”.

He adds:

If Rishi is the investor, Boris is the entrepreneur – bolder, more individualistic, riskier. This explains why Boris was skilled at pulling off Brexit. It might make him less suitable for slowly bringing down debt, controlling inflation and developing a coherent, secure energy system.

He ends by saying:

I can see Boris storming back in different circumstances, with a Labour government in disarray and a lack-lustre Tory opposition seeking renewal. I don’t see it working right now. True Boris fans will have the courage to tell him to sit this one out.

Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley, has said a general election would be “political suicide” for the Conservative party.

Speaking on LBC, he refused to say whether he would be supporting his son if he decides to run as prime minister again.

Asked if the decent thing would be to call a general election, Johnson replied:

We don’t have rules that permit that. Suicide is pretty much illegal in most countries in the world. It’s not advisable.

Asked if he meant that the Tories would be committing political suicide if they went to an election, he replied:

I think they would, yeah.

Sir Peter Bottomley, who as father of the house is the longest continuously serving MP, has announced that he is backing Rishi Sunak.



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2022/oct/22/boris-johnson-rishi-sunak-penny-mordaunt-conservative-tory-leadership-liz-truss-latest-politics-live Tory leadership live: Rishi Sunak passes threshold of 100 supporters as Lord Frost says party ‘must move on’ from Boris Johnson | Politics

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