Boris Johnson pulls out of UK PM contest

The ex-prime minister explained that he hadn’t managed to find a “national interest” solution with other candidates

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pulled out of the Tory party leadership race, thus paving a path to the UK premiership for his former chancellor Rishi Sunak, currently the contest’s favorite.

In a statement released on Sunday evening, Johnson said that he had cleared “the very high hurdle of 102 nominations” from MPs and could “indeed be back in Downing Street on Friday,” and would be “well placed” to bring his party a victory at the 2024 general election.

"But in the course of the last days I have sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do. You can't govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament,” Johnson explained.

He revealed that he had reached out to both current leadership candidates – his former chancellor Rishi Sunak and his former defense secretary Penny Mordaunt – hoping to “come together in the national interest.” However, the former head of government explained, “a way of doing this” has not been found.

“Therefore, I am afraid the best thing is that I do not allow my nomination to go forward and commit my support to whoever succeeds,” he announced.

Johnson’s statement came on a day when some of his long-time allies, including Suella Braverman, who'd served as an Attorney General in his government, backed Sunak.

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