LONDON (TIP): Rishi Sunak tightened his grip on the race to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative Party leader and British prime minister as he bagged 101 votes to again emerge as the winner of the latest voting round on Thursday, July 14. There are now five candidates left in the Tory leadership contest after Suella Braverman, the Indian-origin Attorney General in the fray, was knocked off the shortlist with the least votes at 27. Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt (83 votes), Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (64 votes), former minister Kemi Badenoch (49 votes) and Tory backbencher Tom Tugendhat (32 votes) remain on the ballot in the narrowing race after the second round of votes were cast by lawmakers. The next few rounds of voting among Conservative Party members of Parliament to whittle this list down to just two by next Thursday, July 21 is scheduled for early next week. Rishi Sunak has been the frontrunner among Conservative lawmakers despite being blamed by some for his role in Boris Johnson’s downfall.

Sunak, whose exit from the Treasury last week was one of the first in a cascade of resignations that forced Johnson to quit, has been the frontrunner among Conservative lawmakers despite being blamed by some for his role in Johnson’s downfall. After maintaining his lead Sunak thanked his supporters and said on Twitter: “I am prepared to give everything I have in service to our nation. Together we can restore trust, rebuild our economy and reunite the country.”Earlier, he took to the airwaves to say his first economic priority would be tackling high inflation, not the tax cuts pledged by his rivals.

Sunak, like his former boss, was criticized and fined for breaking pandemic lockdown rules to attend Mr. Johnson’s birthday party in Downing Street in June 2020. The former Chancellor, who is married to Akshata Murthy, daughter of Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, was also in the spotlight because his wife had saved on paying tax on her foreign income, as an expat living in Britain. He was also criticized for holding on to his U.S. ‘green card’ , despite being a public servant in the U.K. If elected to lead the Tories, Sunak will be Britain’s first non-white and Indian origin Prime Minister.