Former British Prime Minister Johnson announced on Sunday that he would not run for leader of the Conservative Party, ending his brief and high-profile attempt to return to the post of prime minister more than three months ago. At a time of political upheaval and severe economic challenges, his withdrawal has made former Finance Minister Sunak the favourite to be Britain's next prime minister, which will be Britain's third prime minister this year.

The Conservative Party held its first round of voting for party leader at 21:00 on Oct. 24. Candidates must have at least 100 votes in order to become a candidate. The results are expected to be announced at 1am the next day. The Conservative Party announced its list of candidates for leadership at 01:00 on October 25th. If there is only one candidate, a new British prime minister may be born. If there are two or more candidates, a new British prime minister will be decided on Friday.

Sunak's education and family background

The 42-year-old Sunak will become the youngest British prime minister in more than 200 years and the country's first South Asian leader.

In 1980, Sunak was born in Southampton, on the south coast of England, to Indian parents, both of whom were born in East Africa. He grew up in a middle-class family where his father was a family doctor and his mother was a pharmacist. He once described how his parents saved money for a private education at Winchester College, one of the most fashionable and expensive boarding schools in the UK.

After graduating from high school, Sunak studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford-the preferred degree for a future prime minister-and then earned an MBA from Stanford.

He worked as a hedge fund manager at Goldman Sachs Group, an investment bank, and lived in the US, where he met his wife, Akshata Murty Murthy. They have two daughters.

After returning to the UK, Sunak was elected to the Conservative Security seat in Richmond, Yorkshire, in 2015 and held several junior ministerial positions until he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer by Johnson in early 2020, just before the pandemic.

Sunak's policy

As a born low-tax politician, Sunak admired former Prime Minister Thatcher, but he spent billions of dollars in government funds to keep people and businesses running during the epidemic. His vacation plan pays millions of workers who have been temporarily laid off, making him the most popular member of the government.

He describes himself as a mature and financially clean candidate, calling his competitors' tax cuts reckless and vowing to rein in inflation.

He often mentions his political idol, Margaret Thatcher, but even so, his competitors portray him as a left-wing, tax-and spending-conscious politician who has been vilified by Johnson's allies.

Mr Sunak is a popular candidate among Conservative MPs, but he must now win wider party support, and his slick image can be an asset or a burden.

Investment banks are still bearish on sterling

Market participants believe that no matter who will succeed British Prime Minister Truss, one thing is clear-the pound will continue to fall.

Patrick Bennett, strategist at Imperial Commercial Bank of Canada, said the pound was expected to remain under pressure and fall to 1.09 by the end of the year, and investor confidence in gilts and sterling would take time to recover. Now the political turmoil in the UK is making it increasingly difficult for investors to restore confidence.

In addition, the key events determining the direction of the pound in the future may be the announcement of the fiscal plan and the extent of the Bank of England's interest rate hike, but there was earlier news that the release of the medium-term fiscal plan had been postponed again. The deputy governor of the Bank of England also said he was not sure whether the central bank needed to raise interest rates sharply.