hello and welcome. rishi sunak will be appointed as britain s third prime minister in seven weeks later, as he meets the king at buckingham palace. the former chancellor won the tory leadership contest yesterday without a vote being cast, after borisjohnson and penny mordaunt dropped out of the race. he has promised to serve with integrity , and told the party they must unite or die . mr sunak will be the first british asian to lead the government, and at 42 the youngest prime minister for more than 200 years. he has promised to serve with integrity and toe the party they must unite or die. it is the greatest privilege of my life to be able to serve the party i love and give back to the country i owe so much to. the united kingdom is a great country, but there is no doubt we face a profound economic challenge. we now need stability and unity, and i will make it my utmost priority to bring our party and our country together. so what can expect to happen in the next few hou
hello and welcome. the former chancellor rishi sunak is poised to become the next prime minister here in the uk after borisjohnson withdrew from the race to succeed liz truss. mrjohnson said there was a very good chance he would have been successful, but he couldn t govern effectively without a united conservative party in parliament. our political editor chris mason has the latest. are you running for the leadership, mr sunak? could september s loser be october s prime minister? rishi sunak is a step closer to downing street tonight, beaten by liz truss just weeks ago, he could replace her as soon as tomorrow. declaring his candidacy today, he wrote: he also felt the need to say: the guaranteed support for him continues to up. what we can t do is have him in as prime minister to implode, taking down the whole government with him, and we just can t do that again. mr baker had backed the former home secretary suella braverman for the job in the summer. today, she backed rish
more now on the day ahead in the uk, and we could know as early as this afternoon who the next leader of the conservative party is and therefore our prime minister. as you ve been hearing, borisjohnson has pulled out of the contest, saying the time isn t right and would not lead to much needed party unity. this leaves two contenders former chancellor rishi sunak and the leader of the house of commons, penny mordaunt, with mr sunak currently the front runner. by 2pm this afternoon if penny mordaunt hasn t got 100 backers or more, then rishi sunak is in post. if both candidates are still in play, then mps vote to state their preference. let s take a look at how the markets are trading today during asian time. we have the dollar versus again, i was hoping to show you the pound but the detail is not on that particular screen, when i looked at it months ago the pound was buying just over $1 13 cents, fairly steady versus the dollar and up slightly versus euro. joining me now is
politics comes at us rather fast these days, doesn t it? this autumn s second new prime minister inherits a nightmarish soup of political and economic gloom. his task starts now. we ll have more from chris in this extended edition of bbc news at six, as we consider the prospects for a sunak premiership. at westminster, the main opposition parties are united on the need for a general election so that millions of voters can have their say. election so that millions of voters can have their say. labour thinks we should be having can have their say. labour thinks we should be having a can have their say. labour thinks we should be having a general- can have their say. labour thinks we should be having a general election. i think everyone i ve spoken to in the public has said we should be having a general election. there is no mandate now. he having a general election. there is no mandate now. having a general election. there is no mandate now. he should call an early genera
imposed. douglas ross, their leader here, said it had been a difficult and unsettling time for the party and unsettling time for the party and the nation, as he congratulate mr sunak at mr sunak. polls suggest that what has happened as a result of the turmoil is that some scottish voters have shifted potentially from the conservatives to labour but the snp remains pretty static and a way ahead and on independence, the nation remains more or less evenly divided on that. the first minister of wales, mark drakeford the first minister of wales, mark drakeford of labour, congratulated rishi sunak but at the same time took a rishi sunak but at the same time took a rather unsubtle swipe at both liz truss took a rather unsubtle swipe at both liz truss and boris johnson. his statement liz truss and boris johnson. his statement said he looked forward to working statement said he looked forward to working constructively with mr sunak in a way working constructively with mr