UK leadership race expands as 3 more candidates announce bids

LONDON

The British international trade minister launched her bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party on Sunday.

Alongside a video she posted to Twitter, Penny Mordaunt wrote: “Our leadership has to change. It needs to become a little less about the leader and a lot more about the ship.”

Mordaunt is a hard-line Brexiteer and was one of the leading figures in the Vote Leave campaign.

She is also popular among Conservative Party members.

On Saturday night, two former health secretaries – Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid – also launched their leadership bids.

Hunt, from the centrist wing of the party, came second to Boris Johnson in the previous leadership election in 2019.

Hunt, who has also previously served as foreign secretary as well as string of other Cabinet positions, positioned himself as the experienced candidate.

He told the BBC many traditional Conservative voters were angry with the party following Johnson’s premiership, adding: “They are not going to come back to us automatically and choosing me will be a very strong signal that the Conservative Party has listened to their anger.”

Javid said he wanted to embark on a tax-cutting plan that would cost £39 billion ($46.9 billion).

He said that Javid said his tax-cutting plans would cost around £39 billion per year, but this did not include slashing fuel duty further in the short-term, which is also part of his leadership vision.

He insisted that he does not “believe in unfunded tax cuts.”

“I will be setting out in the next few days a scorecard which will show exactly how all of that we funded in a sustainable way,” he said.

The trio’s entry into the race to become the next Conservative Party leader and prime minister brings the total number of candidates to nine.

The other six are: former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Tom Tugendhat, Attorney General Suella Braverman, former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch, former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, another favorite, is expected to launch her bid in the next 24 hours.