Rishi
Sunak, the 42-year-old Tory politician who recently lost the prime ministerial
race to Liz Truss, is back in the running. The former Chancellor of the
Exchequer in the Boris Johnson government, Sunak has already secured 100 votes,
the minimum requirement to contest the prime ministerial race and thus emerge
as the leader of the Conservative Party. Moreover, Sunak being the runner-up in
the last Tory party polls, will be the automatic choice for prime minister if
no one else contests.

That,
however, is an unlikely scenario. Penny Mordaunt, a cabinet member in the Liz
Truss government, has already formally declared her candidacy. Mordaunt had
missed out on the last PM race and she said she was running for “a fresh start,
a united party and a leadership in the national interest.”

On Friday,
Rishi Sunak received his 100th vote qualifying him for the PM race.
Tobias Ellwood, the senior Conservative backbencher, tweeted: “Honoured to be
the 100th Tory MP to support #Ready4Rishi.”

Rishi
Sunak, however, has stayed quiet about his candidature so far. When he lost the
Tory party polls earlier this year, he said: “I’ve said throughout that
Conservatives are one family. It’s right now we unite behind the new PM, who
steers the country through difficult times.”

Liz Truss’
45-day tenure as British prime minister hardly saw any unity in the Tory leadership.

Apart from
Sunak and Mordaunt, one candidate whose name has kept cropping up is that of
former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. It was Johnson’s ouster that had led to
the polls between Sunak and Truss. But now, the ever-so-controversial Johnson seems
keen to return to the ballots.

James
Duddridge, a Johnson-ally, said that he has been in touch with the former PM. “He
said…’We are going to do this. I’m up for it’,” Duddridge told Sky News.

Boris Johnson
is reportedly cutting short his Caribbean holiday to take part in the accelerated
contest which will see Conservative Members of Parliament vote on their new
leader as early as Monday.

Johnson’s
candidacy, however, is not without resistance. Tom Tungendhat, UK’s security
minister who ran for himself after Johnson was removed in July, appealed to the
former PM to stay out of the race. “This is no time for political games for
setting scores, or for looking backwards,” he said.

Meanwhile,
polls show that three out of five British citizens now seek fresh general
elections, a demand put forth by the opposition.