Boris Johnson, the caretaker Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, seems to be keen on not backing Rishi Sunak as his successor. The race for the British Prime Minister has gained momentum in recent days. Rishi Sunak won the first and the second rounds in the race.
Apparently, Boris Johnson wants Liz Truss as his successor, a source said.
According to NDTV, Boris Johnson told his allies to back “anyone but Rishi Sunak” on Friday. Boris Johnson, resigned as the leader of the ruling Conservative party on July 7. Reportedly, it is learnt that he has been urging defeated Tory leadership candidates not to back former Chancellor Sunak. Johnson blames Rishi for Johnson’s loss of support among his own party members.
According to the Times Newspaper, Johnson has been meeting with failed contenders and tried to convince and urge that Sunak should not become the Prime Minister.
Earlier, Johnson said that he will neither endorse any leadership candidates or publicly interfere in the contest. Apparently, Johnson is very keen on Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, to succeed him. In fact, according to few sources, Boris is open to Penny Mordaunt, the junior trade Minister, to succeed him instead of Sunak.
Furthemore, few sources have reported that the caretaker Prime Minister feels betrayed after the former Chancellor’s resignation. Boris believes that he had to exit his post, because of Rishi Sunak. Hence, he is running a secret campaign “anyone but Rishi”.
A newspaper quoted “The whole No.10 [Downing Street] team hates Rishi. It’s personal. It’s vitriolic. They don’t blame Saj [Sajid Javid] for bringing him down, but blame Rishi. They think he was planning this for months,”.
However, sources close to Boris denied the claims about the hidden agenda, but agreed that everyone was angry over Sunak’s betrayal.
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