The chosen one will govern until the next legislative elections, scheduled for 2024, which both claimed to be able to win against the Labor opposition.
Also on Wednesday, Johnson made his last appearance to answer weekly questions to the prime minister before the recess of Parliament, which will have a new head of government when he returns from vacation.
“Hasta la vista, baby!”, He said goodbye in Spanish, using the famous phrase from the film Terminators 2to the applause of his supporters and the boos of the opposition, who reproached him for failures, deceit, division and scandals in his three years in office.
“The Dirtiest Campaign”
Truss and Sunak will face each other in a debate organized by the BBC on Monday after having attacked each other very harshly in the precedent, along with other candidates.
These kinds of internal elections are common in a Conservative Party accustomed to getting rid of its leaders when they no longer have electoral appeal.
Johnson himself came to power in July 2019 elected to replace Theresa May as leader, before winning the largest Conservative majority in 40 years in snap parliamentary elections four months later.
Mordaunt, a Navy reservist who was briefly defense minister, was running as the “change” candidate, against two other “continuity” candidates, and enjoyed very high popularity among conservative bases.