JUST IN: The former Treasury chief will be Britain's first leader of color and faces the task of stabilizing the party and country at a time of economic and political turbulence.
Sunak lost out to Truss in the last Conservative election, but his party and the country now appear eager for a safe pair of hands to tackle soaring energy and food prices and a looming recession. The politician steered the economy through the coronavirus pandemic, winning praise for his financial support for laid-off workers and shuttered businesses.
That means Sunak is now the Conservative Party leader and will be asked by King Charles III to form a government. He will become the prime minister in a handover of power from Truss later Monday or on Tuesday. Johnson spent the weekend trying to gain support from fellow Conservative lawmakers after flying back from a Caribbean vacation. Late Sunday he said he had amassed the backing of 102 colleagues. But he was far behind Sunak in support, and said he had concluded that "you can't govern effectively unless you have a united party in Parliament."
"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," he said.