In the second stage of British Conservative party leadership elections on Wednesday, 20 July, two potential candidates remained: ex-Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak and ex-Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss.
Penny Mordaunt, the current Minister of State for Trade Policy of UK, dropped out of the race in the fifth round of voting.
Sunak received votes from 137 out of 357 Tory members, Truss received 133, and Mordaunt received 105 votes from members of the parliament.
Following request from many MPs, Boris Johnson on 7 July announced that he would step down as the leader of the Conservative party, losing his post as British PM as well. He will continue serving as PM until a new leader has been elected.
Almost three years ago Boris Johnson won an impressive victory in elections. However, in recent months he has been mired in controversies, including a scandal, in which he had breached the epidemiological restrictions he himself had imposed in Britain.
This week Johnson ended up in hot water again due to the revelations regarding the PM’s behaviour in regards to accusations of sexual misconduct by Tamworth MP Chris Pincher.
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