(Reuters) – UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has gained backing from Brexit negotiator David Frost and British lawmaker Suella Braverman in a race to become the next UK prime minister, British media reported on Thursday.
Truss, who received 64 votes in the second round of the Conservative Party’s leadership election on Thursday, pledged an “upward trajectory” for the economy by 2024, when the next national election would take place. Former finance minister Rishi Sunak topped with 101 votes, followed by junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt with 83.
“She has the right ideas and the energy to deliver them. She deserves to be our next Prime Minister to take our country forward and I will support her,” Frost wrote in an op-ed in The Telegraph, supporting Truss.
Braverman, who was eliminated from the race with only 27 votes, said she will support Truss while influential Conservative Party lawmaker Steve Baker, who had supported Braverman, also said he would support Truss, The Times said.
Sunak has been endorsed by leading party figures including deputy prime minister Dominic Raab and transport minister Grant Shapps.
The Times said Prime Minister Boris Johnson is urging defeated leadership candidates to back “anyone but Rishi”.
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Daniel Wallis)
