Former British finance minister Rishi Sunak, one of the two remaining candidates to become Britain's next prime minister, on Saturday described himself as a "backward" in the contest.
Sunak's resignation helped trigger a rebellion, in which Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to step down after a series of scandals. Members of the ruling Conservative Party will vote for a successor over the summer, which will be announced on 5 September.
Sunak led an all-round voting between Conservative Party lawmakers to reduce the fray to two candidates.
But it looks like Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has so far reaped benefits from among the governing party's 200,000 members who will ultimately choose the winner.
Truss took a 24-point lead over Sunak in a YouGov poll of Conservative Party members published on Thursday.
"No doubt, I am a Dalit," Sunak said in a speech in Grantham, central England, the birthplace of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Truss will only be Britain's third female prime minister after Thatcher and Theresa May, while Sunak will be the country's first Indian-origin leader.
"The forces that want it to be a coronation for another candidate, but I think the members want an alternative and they are ready to listen," he said.
So far, the focus has been on pledges, or non-pledges, to cut taxes, along with defense spending and energy policy, at a time when many are struggling.
In his speech, Sunak laid out his Thatcherite credentials, promising careful management of the economy before the tax cuts. He criticized the truce as arbitrary to increase defense spending to 3 percent of GDP by 2030.
In an interview for Saturday's Times newspaper, Sunak said he would put the government in trouble if he took office.
Source: Justice News
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