Rishi Sunak will become the UK’s third Prime Minister in seven weeks after winning the Tory leadership contest.
The former Chancellor of the Exchequer was the only MP to meet the threshold of 100 backers required to make the next stage of the contest.
He will become Prime Minister after a meeting with the King at Buckingham Palace. Sunak ’s effective coronation comes weeks after he lost a bitter contest to Liz Truss, who quit after 44 days in charge following a disastrous mini-budget that nearly torpedoed the UK economy.
Sunak triumphed after Boris Johnson, whose resignation as PM led to Truss taking the job, withdrew from the race. Commons leader Penny Mordaunt's last minute concession gave him victory.
The SNP has claimed he has no mandate from the public with Nicola Sturgeon insisting a general election must now be called.
Mordaunt said Sunak has her “full support” after dropping out of the contest.
She said: “These are unprecedented times. Despite the compressed timetable for the leadership contest it is clear that colleagues feel we need certainty today.
“They have taken this decision in good faith for the good of the country.
“Members should know that this proposition has been fairly and thoroughly tested by the agreed 1922 process.
“As a result, we have now chosen our next prime minister.”
Sunak was defeated just seven weeks ago in the last Tory leadership race as the party membership picked Truss. In that contest, he positioned himself as the candidate prepared to tell hard truths about the state of the public finances rather than "comforting fairy tales".
He remained resolute in the view that his rival's promises of unfunded tax cuts at a time of worsening inflation were irresponsible, dangerous and un-Conservative, predicting that they would lead to surging mortgage rates.
After Truss took office, her disastrous mini-budget triggered turbulence in the financial markets and forced the Bank of England to intervene, proving Sunak right.
He kept a low profile as the chaos continued, staying away from the annual Tory conference, which was overshadowed by a U-turn on a flagship policy to scrap the 45p rate of income tax.
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