Rishi Sunak Has Confirmed He Will Join The Race To Replace Liz Truss As UK Prime Minister

Rishi Sunak has confirmed he will join the race to replace Liz Truss as UK Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader after the economic crisis forced Truss to resign after  just 44 days in office. “Britain is a great country but we are facing a deep economic crisis.

That is why I am running for the post of leader of the Conservative Party and its next prime minister," he said in a statement released on Sunday, setting up a potentially painful battle with his former boss  Boris Johnson. "I want to fix our economy, unite our party and fulfill our country," he said a day after the former finance minister garnered enough support to run. Britain is a great country but we are facing a deep economic crisis.

That's why I'm running for leader of the Conservative Party and its next  prime minister. Markets were thrown into chaos and  the pound fell to its lowest value. The unprecedented economic crisis prompted a rare intervention by the Bank of England. The market turmoil forced Truss to fire his then-Chancellor of the Exchequer in , Kwasi Kwarteng, and replace him with Jeremy Hunt, who promptly scrapped  his entire economic agenda. Truss became Prime Minister after his predecessor Boris Johnson was forced to resign in July following a series of scandals surrounding gatherings that flouted coronavirus lockdown rules.

Reports suggest that Johnson may also run for prime minister, but he has not officially stated so. According to British media, he held talks with Sunak on Saturday night shortly after Johnson returned to London from a holiday in the Caribbean. The only other leader who has formally announced her candidacy is Penny Mordaunt, leader of the House of Commons and former Defense Secretary. It would be his second fight for the lead in the match after losing to Truss. Any potential candidate must secure the support of at least 100 Conservative MPs by the 13th.

Political website Guido Fawkes, which runs a rolling chart of  declared support from Conservative MPs, had put Sunak with 140 lawmakers, Johnson with 75 and Mordaunt with 27. According to the rules, only three candidates will make it to  the first place voting on Monday afternoon. Johnson's allies say he is "ready for it" but the prospect of another prime minister role for the 58-year-old Brexit architect  is a polarizing issue for many in the  deeply divided Conservative Party. fired four prime ministers in six years after . Johnson had left Downing Street after a government revolt over a series of crises mired in scandal.

He is currently under investigation by the Parliamentary Privileges Committee for knowingly misleading Parliament by breaching lockdown rules. Ministers who have knowingly misled Parliament are expected to resign.