Lord chancellor and justice secretary Brandon Lewis is the latest Conservative MP to back Rishi Sunak in becoming the UK’s third prime minister in three months.

‘At a time of acute challenge, we must come together and unite. It is clear that the majority of our parliamentary party support Rishi Sunak to be our next PM. He has the necessary expertise and experience to do that, and he will have my absolute backing in doing so,’ Lewis tweeted just after 11am today.

Let’s hope Sunak doesn’t hold grudges - if only to spare judges from dusting off their ceremonial robes to witness their second swearing-in ceremony in two months.

After initially backing Nadhim Zahawi in the last leadership contest, Lewis threw his support behind Liz Truss. ‘When she says she is going to do something, she delivers. She will govern based on true Conservative values that can unite our party, and the whole of the United Kingdom’, he said on 30 July.

Someone who was ‘Ready for Rishi’ from the beginning? Lewis’s predecessor, Dominic Raab. 

Topics