Former London mayor Boris Johnson is likely to be the next British prime minister, but he must first face a finalist appointed Thursday by MPs.
British Conservative MPs will decide on Thursday 20th June 2019 to face Boris Johnson in the final sprint of Prime Minister Theresa May run-of-the-mill race, so far dominated by the exuberant pro-Brexit.
Boris Johnson, holding a hard Brexit, former mayor of London and former foreign minister , flew over the first rounds of voting Tory MP’s, including the third Wednesday with 143 votes out of 313.
This election must designate the two finalist contenders for the position of leader of the Conservative Party, to whom will return the keys of 10 Downing Street , but also the thorny issue of Brexit.
The result of the last two rounds scheduled for Thursday must be announced around 17h. Against Boris Johnson, untouchable, three candidates compete for second place: Foreign Ministers Jeremy Hunt , Environment Michael Gove , and Interior Sajid Javid .
Over the next few weeks, the two finalists will travel across the country to present their programs to the 160,000 members of the Conservative Party, who have the task of separating them by the end of July.
But again, the suspense seems very thin: for “most of his colleagues,” it is “now almost inevitable that (Boris Johnson) is the next British Prime Minister,” said the Guardian.
Read also: British Prime Minister Theresa May will resign on June 7
One mission: Brexit
The implementation of Brexit will be, from a distance, the priority of the new head of government, three years after the June 2016 referendum, which saw the British vote 52% in favour of this historic divorce.
Unable to do so, worn out by incessant criticism and conspiracy in the Tories, Theresa May resigned June 7 as Conservative leader.
After three successive rejections by the deputies of the withdrawal agreement it negotiated with Brussels, supposed to organize a smooth separation, the leader had been forced to postpone to October 31 the date of Brexit, originally scheduled for March 29 .
In a country disoriented by this procrastination, Boris Johnson plays the saviour card of Brexit and says he is ready to scrap to renegotiate the agreement of Theresa May, even though Brussels has ruled out this eventuality.
This is evidenced by its threat of not paying the Brexit bill – estimated at between 40 and 45 billion euros by London – until the EU accepts better withdrawal conditions.
During a televised debate on Tuesday night, he repeated his desire to get his country out of the European Union by 31 October, leaving without an agreement with the EU, without however committing to “guarantee” a Brexit on that date.
Avoid the “no deal”
A skilled and charismatic politician with a consuming ambition, Boris Johnson, 55, enjoys the support of many activists from the Conservative Party base, who see him as the right leader to put Brexit back on track.
And although his repeated gaffes and his populist-themed speech annoy his peers, many now consider him a bulwark in the Brexit Party of the Europhobe populist Nigel Farage, winner of the last European elections in the UK, and the Labor opposition of Jeremy Corbyn.
Against Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, a distant second after Wednesday’s vote (54 votes), poses as a “serious” alternative, highlighting his success as an entrepreneur, which made him a millionaire, and his long political career.
Hunt, like Michael Gove, believes that a new postponement of Brexit may be necessary if an agreement with Brussels is at hand, to avoid the “no deal” feared by the business community on 31 October.
Finance Minister Philip Hammond on Thursday will add his mark in a speech to representatives of the banking sector, lambasting those who jeopardize the “prosperity” of the United Kingdom by brandishing the threat of a “no deal”, according to extracts communicated by his services.
