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BORIS: NOT THIS TIME
JOHNSON QUITS RACE TO BECOME NEW LEADER – SUNAK COULD BE CONFIRMED AS NEXT PRIME MINISTER LATER TODAY CITY A.M. STAFF
have a united party in parliament,” Johnson said. Some Conservative MPs had made it BORIS Johnson sensationally ruled himself known privately in recent days that they out of the running to become Conservative would not be able to stay in the party if party leader late last night, making Rishi Johnson, who left Number 10 after a string of Sunak the odds-on favourite to become the scandals in September, returned to the top country’s next Prime Minister. job. Johnson claimed he had secured the Rishi Sunak, who has already secured 159 backing of more than 100 MPs – the nominations to become leader, will now threshold needed to get on the ballot to watch to see if his only remaining rival Penny become Liz Truss’ replacement – but that he Mordaunt can secure 100 backers by 2pm had decided “this would not be the right today. She had 29 declared backers last thing to do”. night, and would need a significant shift from “You can’t govern effectively unless you Boris’ supporters to make up the ground.
If Mordaunt does not make the threshold, Rishi Sunak will become Prime Minister this Friday. “I am afraid the best thing is that I do not allow my nomination to go forward and commit my support to whoever succeeds,” Johnson said. Yesterday he had talks with both Sunak and Mordaunt in efforts to broker joint tickets but to no avail. Sunak formally
launched his bid to become leader yesterday, saying: “I served as your Chancellor, helping to steer our economy through the toughest of times. “The challenges we face now are even greater. But the opportunities – if we make the right choice – are phenomenal.” He lost to Liz Truss in the last Conservative leadership election, which ran over the summer. Markets were choppy at the end of last week as Johnson emerged in the race to seize the keys to Number 10.
Bond yields fired higher, with rates on both the 10-year and 30-year gilt ending the week above four per cent. Whoever wins the Tory leadership race will need to keep Jeremy Hunt as chancellor to appease the financial markets, analysts are urging. “While a new PM would be within his or her rights to leave their stamp on the Budget, a departure from [last] week’s new course, or even the timetable, risks inflicting renewed damage to the UK’s credibility,” Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec, said.
THE CITY VIEW: AN IMPERFECT CANDIDATE, BUT RISHI IS THE RIGHT CHOICE RIGHT NOW PAGE 2
City grandee: ‘Pathetic’ to let blackout fear weaken war against ‘fascist’ Putin NICHOLAS EARL BRITS should ditch their social media support for Ukraine if they are unwilling to face blackouts this winter, according to a City grandee now leading a coalition of green energy firms. Lord Adair Turner (pictured), who was chairman of the Financial
Services Authority during the financial crash and also served as CBI director general, told Times Radio yesterday that the prospect of blackouts was not “absolutely terrifying” and that it would be “pretty pathetic”
not to continue supporting Ukraine in the face of supply shortages. Blackout risks were a price worth paying in the war against a “fascist dictatorship”, said Turner. He said: “Frankly, if you’re not able to face that, don’t tweet a
Ukrainian flag and say that you’ve got sympathy and support for the Ukrainian people.” Turner’s comments follow warnings from the National Grid of three-hour rolling blackouts in January in a potential extreme worst-case scenario. Despite the risks, he argued the west had to confront Russia’s
ability to influence wholesale markets. Turner said: “Let’s be clear, we are engaged in a war. We are not fighting that war, that is being fought by the extraordinarily brave Ukrainian men and women. But we are engaged in a war and it’s a war for democracy, and against a fascist dictatorship.”
INSIDE UK MISSES DIWALI DEADLINE FOR INDIA DEAL P5 ENERGY P7 GLENCORE FACES PROBE P11 FIRMS WARNED OVER CYBER COMPLACENCY P13 MARKETS P16 OPINION P18