UK’s defense chief Ben Wallace tops odds in Tory leadership race

LONDON 

As Boris Johnson has resigned as leader of the Conservative Party and the UK’s prime minister, the country’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace tops an opinion poll on who should become the new leader of the party and the country.

A poll by YouGov puts Wallace in the first spot among other favorites with 13%.

Wallace has had rising popularity with his response to the war in Ukraine since it started almost 4 months ago and he refused to leave his office while 59 Tory MPs including senior ministers were resigning prior to the resignation of Boris Johnson yesterday.

“A number of us have an obligation to keep this country safe, no matter who is PM,” Wallace said on Friday.

“The party has a mechanism to change leaders and that is the mechanism which I advise colleagues to use. In the meantime, the public would not forgive us if we left these Offices of State empty.”

Wallace is followed by Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak with 12% and 10%, respectively.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, whose name has been on a list of potential successors, is at 4th place with 8%, according to the poll.

The other names on the YouGov poll are Michael Gove, Dominic Raab, and Tom Tugendhat.

Raab has already ruled out that he would stand as a contester in the Tory leadership race.

Tugendhat has become the first name to announce his candidacy for the top position of the party.

Meanwhile, discussions continue on whether Johnson should remain as the prime minister until a new leader is elected. Johnson in his resignation speech stated that he would remain in the office until the arrival of the next Tory leader.


Former British Prime Minister John Major said it was “unwise, and may be unsustainable” for Johnson to remain in power for several months.

However, a No. 10 spokesperson said Johnson is committed to continuing until a new leader is appointed on Friday.

The new leader is expected to be appointed after a series of votes among the candidates over the summer, probably by the start of September.