On Sunday, influential figures on the right of the Conservative Party congregated around Rishi Sunak, the man who had earlier been accused of betraying Boris Johnson, making it difficult for him to garner enough support to succeed David Cameron as the next prime minister of Britain.
Prior to a first vote by Conservative legislators on Monday, prominent personalities who had previously backed Johnson came out in favour of the former finance minister Sunak.
Steve Baker, a junior minister, declared on Sunday that he would support Sunak because the nation could not afford a relapse into the soap opera that had developed earlier this year before Johnson was removed from office due to a series of scandals.
Johnson is currently under investigation by parliament’s Privileges Committee to establish whether he lied to the House of Commons over parties held at Downing Street during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ministers found to have knowingly misled parliament are expected to resign.
“This isn’t the time for Boris’s style,” Baker told Sky News. “I’m afraid the trouble is because of the privileges vote, Boris would be a guaranteed disaster.”
Sunak, Johnson and Penny Mordaunt are trying to get the support of 100 lawmakers so they can enter a ballot on Monday to become the next prime minister and replace Liz Truss who was forced out after just six weeks in office.
Johnson was forced out of office in July when Sunak quit, triggering a wider rebellion that prompted Johnson’s ministers to resign en masse.
Baker said the country now needed a period of stability after Truss sparked turmoil in finance markets, and that meant not voting for Johnson again.
“What we can’t do is have him in as prime minister in circumstances where he’s bound to implode, taking down the whole government with him,” he said.
Mordaunt-backer Damian Green dismissed reports that she was struggling to meet the threshold, telling Sky News that she would not pull out.