Can Rishi Sunak stop the Boris Johnson bandwagon as the ex-PM picks up some big-name backers?
Can Rishi Sunak stop the Boris Johnson bandwagon in the fight for the soul of the Conservative Party?
The former chancellor so far has a comfortable lead in pledges of support from Conservative backers, but the ex-PM is picking up big names.
In the Cabinet, predictably, political soulmate Jacob Rees-Mogg is backing Mr Johnson and so is fellow-Brexiteer Simon Clarke.
But the most valuable endorsement has come from Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who many MPs and activists would have liked to see enter the race.
Politics live: Boris Johnson backed by third cabinet minister
Some MPs believe the third potential candidate, Penny Mordaunt, who was the first to declare publicly that she’s running, is a much more credible unity candidate than Mr Sunak or Mr Johnson, who are both loathed by the rival camps.
But so far, she’s in third place in pledges of support from MPs and may struggle to get 100 nominations, and so it’s looking like a Sunak-Johnson battle for the Tory crown at the moment.
Mr Johnson, currently on holiday in the sun-kissed Dominican Republic in the Caribbean, claims he can save the Tories from an election wipe-out. He would, wouldn’t he?
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Defence secretary ‘leaning towards Boris Johnson’.
But can he? BoJo is box office and his supporters point to his 2019 general election victory, when the Conservatives won a majority of 80, as evidence that he’s a vote winner.
And he’s still the darling of the party activists. A YouGov poll this week suggested he’d be backed by 33% of members, ahead of Mr Sunak with just 23%.
So if he reaches the 100 nominations required to get on the ballot paper and makes it to the final two voted on by the members, he’d be the firm favourite to win.
But it’s by no means certain that he’ll make it to 100 backers. The only candidate who can confidently expect to reach 100 nominations is Mr Sunak.
Mr Johnson is a massively divisive figure. Some Tory MPs are horrified at the prospect of a BoJo comeback and are even threatening to quit the party if he wins.
Remember, after the three Ps – Paterson, Partygate and Pincher – 59 ministers resigned and 148 Conservative MPs voted against him in a confidence vote.
Opinion polls suggest he’s so discredited by scandals and sleaze that he’s lost his touch, despite what his loyal supporters claim.
The expected timeline of events in electing a new PM
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Whoever succeeds Liz Truss faces a nightmare in-tray. Will Jeremy Hunt’s Halloween rescue plan for the economy go ahead? No. 10 says that’s up to the new PM.
Will the new PM go ahead with the spending cuts and tax increases Mr Hunt is planning? Mr Johnson, after all, was a big-spending prime minister.
Will Mr Hunt even still be chancellor this time next week? If you thought Kwasi Kwarteng’s 38 days in the Treasury was brief, Mr Hunt could be out after just a fortnight!
The opposition parties, obviously, want a general election with polls pointing to a Tory wipeout. But in a contest that’s potentially a three-horse race a general election is a non-runner, whoever wins the Tory crown.
Donald Trump has threatened Russia with more sanctions after a series of deadly strikes across Ukraine, as he said of Vladimir Putin: “What the hell happened to him?”
The US president appeared aghast at the conduct of his counterpart in the Kremlin after drone and missile attacks in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities left 12 people dead and dozens more injured.
Trump criticises Putin – latest updates
Speaking to reporters at an airport in New Jersey ahead of a flight back to Washington, Mr Trump said: “I’m not happy with Putin. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“He’s killing a lot of people,” he added. “I’m not happy about that.”
Mr Trump – who said he’s “always gotten along with” Mr Putin – told reporters he would consider more sanctions against Moscow.
“He’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” he said.
Ukraine said the barrage of strikes overnight into Sunday was the biggest aerial attack of the war so far, with 367 drones and missiles fired by Russian forces.
It came despite Mr Trump repeatedly talking up the chances of a peace agreement. He even spoke to Mr Putin on the phone for two hours last week.
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Trump says will postpone 50% tariffs on EU until July
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Hundreds of drones fired at Ukraine
‘Shameful’ attacks
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is ready to sign a ceasefire deal, and suggested Russia isn’t serious about signing one.
In a statement after the latest attacks on his country, he urged the US and other national leaders to increase the pressure on Mr Putin, saying silence “only encourages” him.
Mr Trump’s envoy for the country, Keith Kellogg, later demanded a ceasefire, describing the Russian attacks as “shameful”.
Three children were among those killed in the attacks, explosions shaking the cities of Kyiv, Odesa, and Mykolaiv.
Ukrainian siblings Tamara, 12, Stanislav, eight, and Roman, 17, were killed in Russian airstrikes. Pic: X/@Mariana_Betsa
Before the onslaught, Russia said it had faced a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday. It said around 100 were intercepted and destroyed near Moscow and in central and southern regions.
The violence has escalated despite Russia and Ukraine completing the exchange of 1,000 prisoners each over the past three days.
Donald Trump says he will delay the imposition of 50% tariffs on goods entering the United States from the European Union until July, as the two sides attempt to negotiate a trade deal.
It comes after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a post on social media site X that she had spoken to Mr Trump and expressed that they needed until 9 July to “reach a good deal”.
The US president had last Friday threatened to bring in the 50% tariffs from 1 June, as European leaders said they were ready to respond with their own measures.
But Mr Trump has now said that date has been put back to 9 July to allow more time for negotiations with the 27-member bloc, with the phone call appearing to smooth over tensions for now at least.
Speaking on Sunday before boarding Air Force One for Washington DC, Mr Trump told reporters that he had spoken to Ms Von der Leyen and she “wants to get down to serious negotiations” and she vowed to “rapidly get together and see if we can work something out”.
The US president, in comments on his Truth Social platform, had reignited fears last Friday of a trade war between the two powers when he said talks were “going nowhere” and the bloc was “very difficult to deal with”.
Mr Trump told the media in Morristown, New Jersey, on Sunday that Ms Von der Leyen “just called me… and she asked for an extension in the June 1st date. And she said she wants to get down to serious negotiation”.
“We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it. I believe July 9th would be the date. That was the date she requested. She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out,” the US president added.
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Shortly after, he wrote on Truth Social: “I agreed to the extension – July 9, 2025 – It was my privilege to do so.”
On his so-called “liberation day” last month, Mr Trump unleashed tariffs on many of America’s trade partners. But since then he’s backed down in a spiralling tit-for-tat tariff face-off with China, and struck a deal with the UK.
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Much of his most incendiary rhetoric on trade has been directed at Brussels, though, even going as far as to claim the EU was created to rip the US off.
Responding to his 50% tariff threat, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said: “EU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.
“We stand ready to defend our interests.”
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