Rishi Sunak seems to be heading for a coronation after Boris Johnson’s exit

Boris Johnson exited the race to be Tory leader – and therefore Prime Minister – late on Sunday, claiming that “you cannot govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament” and arguing that now was “simply not the right time”. The move seemed to catch several of his supporters by surprise; James Duddridge, who first indicated that the disgraced Prime Minister was intending to run, tweeted: “Well that was unexpected. Off to bed!”. Nadhim Zahawi also seemed to be caught off guard. After writing in support of Johnson’s bid on Sunday, Zahawi swiftly issued this U-turn pledging his loyalty to Rishi Sunak following his former boss’s exit.

Sunak could now be our new Prime Minister by 2pm – if Penny Mordaunt fails to reach the 100-nominations deadline by then. He is well ahead, with the public support of 179 MPs declared for the former Chancellor. Just 25 have said they are backing Mordaunt. Her team is privately claiming that she has the endorsements needed to get her on the ballot, however there seems to be little evidence of Johnson supporters switching to Mordaunt. After the nomination period, a ballot of Tory members had been planned – but if Mordaunt cannot make the threshold by this afternoon, as many suspect, today will effectively be a coronation.

Emily Thornberry told Sky News this morning: “I do not see why we should sit back today and just accept that it’s ok to have somebody simply crowned… We don’t live in that sort of country, we live in a democracy.” She told viewers that the party would call a vote of confidence when it has a chance of winning one, but that “now is not the moment”.

In Labour news, Lauren Townsend confirmed that she had been blocked from standing to be the party’s candidate in Milton Keynes North over the weekend. The Labour and Co-op Party councillor and cabinet member had received the backing of trade unions Aslef, CWU, FBU, UNISON, Unite and the TSSA. According to Townsend, the reasons cited for excluding her from the process included liking a tweet by Nicola Sturgeon confirming she had tested negative for Covid.