Rishi Sunak wins first round of Tory contest to succeed UK PM Boris Johnson

In the first ballot of Conservative MPs on Wednesday, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer won 88 votes -- ahead of the second-placed Penny Mordaunt with 67 votes. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was third with 50.

Rishi Sunak, whose resignation helped trigger the downfall of Boris Johnson last week, took an early lead in the race to succeed him as leader of the ruling Conservative Party leader and Britain’s prime minister.

Despite the early show of support for Sunak, the latest YouGov poll of Tory grassroots members -- who make the final decision once Conservative MPs have narrowed the field down to two. (AP)

In the first ballot of Conservative MPs on Wednesday, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer won 88 votes -- ahead of the second-placed Penny Mordaunt with 67 votes. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was third with 50.

Current Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi was knocked out along with Jeremy Hunt, under rules that remove the candidate with the lowest support, as well as anyone with fewer than 30 votes. The next ballot is scheduled for Thursday.

Despite the early show of support for Sunak, the latest YouGov poll of Tory grassroots members -- who make the final decision once Conservative MPs have narrowed the field down to two -- suggested he would be beaten in a run-off against either Mordaunt or Truss.

The contest remains wide open.

The candidates to replace Johnson, whose scandal-hit premiership buckled under the weight of resignations from his government, have spent recent days battling to out-do each other to attract the political right of the ruling party, knowing that’s where the bulk of votes lie.

It was a tactic Johnson himself attempted whenever his position came under threat, and reflects the makeup of the Tories since they won a resounding parliamentary majority in 2019 under the slogan “Get Brexit Done.”

The result has been a plethora of promises to reduce taxes to ease the UK’s cost-of-living crisis, but with few details on which public services would be cut to fund them. The new leader will be announced on Sept. 5, following a estimated 175,000 grassroots party members have made their final choice after six weeks of summer hustings.

The ‘Darwinian’ System to Select UK’s Prime Minister: QuickTake

But the competition is intense for the low-tax, Thatcherite position coveted by Truss and Attorney General Suella Braverman, who both remain in the competition after the first round.

So far, Sunak has been the exception on taxes, with the former chancellor promising that he would only cut them once the UK’s soaring inflation has been brought under control. He has won the backing of Tory big-hitters including Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Health Secretary Steve Barclay in his campaign for the top job.

Yet Sunak’s stance is a risk given he raised the tax burden to its highest level since the 1940s as chancellor to pay for pandemic-era spending, a record that sits uneasily with many Tory MPs. He also resisted calls to cut taxes for fear of fueling inflation, which is forecast to exceed 11% in the UK in October.