Rishi Sunak looked set to become Britain's next prime minister after Boris Johnson withdrew from the contest on Sunday, saying that although he had enough support to make the final ballot he realised the country and the Conservative Party needed unity.
Johnson had raced home from a holiday in the Caribbean to try and secure the backing of 100 lawmakers to enter Monday's contest to replace Liz Truss, the woman who succeeded him in September after he was forced to quit over a string of scandals.
He said he had secured the backing of 102 lawmakers and could have been "back in Downing Street", but that he had failed to persuade either Sunak, or the other contender Penny Mordaunt, to come together "in the national interest".
The former prime minister had secured the public backing of just under 60 Conservative lawmakers by Sunday, well under half of the nearly 150 endorsements Sunak had received.
