Boris Johnson's 'anyone but Rishi Sunak' posturing as UK PM race heats up
India Today
The UK’s caretaker PM, Boris Johnson, has been urging Tory candidates, who are losing to Rishi Sunak, not to back his former Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Vote for “anyone but Rishi Sunak” is Boris Johnson’s message to his allies as the race to choose Britain’s next prime minister heats up, local media reported. Boris Johnson, who found himself in a puddle of scandals in the middle of his tenure as the UK PM, was forced to resign his post and as the leader of the Conservative Party.
The UK’s caretaker PM has been urging Tory candidates, who are losing to Sunak in the initial rounds, not to back his former Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Even as Johnson said that he would stay away from the contest and not endorse or publicly intervene in the election process, he reportedly spoke with failed contenders to get them to not back Sunak.
Johnson and his camp are allegedly running a hidden campaign - “anyone but Rishi” - over the outgoing PM's feeling of betrayal after Sunak resigned. Although Johnson was flooded by resignations in his last few days at work, Sunak's dealt the last and the most lethal blow to his premiership and led to his exit from 10 Downing Street.
“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. They blame Rishi. They think he was planning this for months,” The Times quoted a source as saying, reported PTI.
However, according to other reports, one of Johnson’s close allies denied the claims that the outgoing PM wants “anyone but Rishi” to win while also admitting that Johnson is hurt and angry with Sunak’s “betrayal”.
Rishi Sunak, the son-in-law of Infosys founder NR Narayan Murthy, has been the clear winner of the first two rounds of voting by Tory Members of Parliament. He will now appear in a series of televised debates with his remaining opponents.
