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International
MPR News Staff
London

Boris Johnson out of race to be next UK prime minister

Sunset in London
General view of Downing Street as the sun sets in London on Sunday. The race to become Britain's next prime minister narrowed as Boris Johnson pulled out of the running.
Alberto Pezzali | AP

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Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he will not run to lead the Conservative Party, ending intense speculation about a comeback.

Johnson, who was ousted in July amid ethics scandals, was widely expected to run to replace Liz Truss, who quit last week.

He has spent the weekend trying to gain support from fellow lawmakers, and said he had amassed more than 100 votes, the threshold to run.

But he was far behind former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak in support. Johnson said he had concluded that “you can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in Parliament.”

Sunak was the frontrunner Sunday in the Conservative Party's race to replace Liz Truss as prime minister. Sunak garnered the public support of over 100 Tory lawmakers to forge ahead of his two main rivals: Johnson and ex-Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt.

But widespread uncertainty remained after British media reported that Sunak held late-night talks with Johnson on Saturday. Speculation mounted that the pair could strike a deal to unite the fractured governing party after it was left reeling from Truss' rapid downfall following Johnson's ouster.

The Conservative Party hastily ordered a contest that aims to finalize nominations Monday and install a new prime minister — its third this year — within a week.

Sunak, 42, was runner-up after Truss in this summer's Tory leadership race to replace Johnson after he was forced out by a string of ethics scandals. On Sunday, he confirmed he was running again in the latest leadership contest.

Sunak has the backing of at least 124 Conservative lawmakers, according to unofficial tallies compiled by British news organizations. That's well ahead of the 100 nominations required to qualify.

“There will be integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level of the government I lead and I will work day in and day out to get the job done," Sunak said in a statement.

The party’s 172,000 members would then get to decide between the two finalists in an online vote. The new leader is due to be selected by Friday.

A possible return to power for Johnson, 58, who officially quit only in early September, deeply divided the Conservatives and alarmed many others. Supporters say he is a vote winner and has enough support from lawmakers, but many critics warned that another Johnson government would be catastrophic for the party and the country.

Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker, a former backer of Johnson and an influential politician within the Conservative Party, warned a Johnson comeback would be a “guaranteed disaster.” Baker noted that Johnson still faces an investigation into whether he lied to Parliament while in office about breaking his government's own coronavirus restrictions during parties at Downing Street.

If found guilty, Johnson could be suspended as a lawmaker.

“This isn’t the time for Boris and his style,” Baker told Sky News on Sunday. “What we can’t do is have him as prime minister in circumstances where he’s bound to implode, taking down the whole government ... and we just can’t do that again.”

But Johnson won the backing of several senior Conservatives, including Nadhim Zahawi, another former Treasury chief.

"He was contrite and honest about his mistakes. He’d learned from those mistakes how he could run No 10 and the country better,” Zahawi said.

Truss quit Thursday after a turbulent 45 days, conceding that she could not deliver on her botched tax-cutting economic package, which she was forced to abandon after it sparked fury within her party and weeks of turmoil in financial markets.

Sunak, who was Treasury chief from 2020 until this summer, steered Britain's slumping economy through the coronavirus pandemic. He quit in July in protest of Johnson's leadership.

In the summer contest to replace Johnson, Sunak called promises by Truss and other rivals to immediately slash taxes reckless “fairy tales” and argued that climbing inflation must be controlled first.

Tory voters backed Truss over Sunak, but he was proved right when Truss' unfunded tax-cutting package triggered chaos in the markets in September.

Dozens among Britain's 357 Conservative lawmakers have not yet publicly declared whom they are backing to replace Truss.