Rishi Sunak wins whirlwind race to be UK's next prime minister after Liz Truss's economic plans left Britain in chaos

• Rishi Sunak is due to become the UK's next prime minister after the chaotic departure of Liz Truss.
• The former finance minister won a vote of MPs after Truss's economic plans left Britain in tumult.

Rishi Sunak became the UK's presumptive prime minister on Monday after his only remaining rival, Penny Mordaunt, withdrew from the Conservative Party leadership race.

Sunak, a 42-year-old former finance minister, won the race by being the only Conservative MP to secure the backing of at least 100 of his peers. He will become the UK's first non-white leader and its youngest in decades.

His rival, the MP Penny Mordaunt, dropped out moments before the deadline to demonstrate her support, saying "Rishi has my full support."

Her decision left Rishi the only candidate, establishing him as the next prime minister only four days after his predecessor Liz Truss quit

He is due to formally take office after an audience with King Charles. As of Monday afternoon in London, a time for this had not been set.

It was also barely two months since Sunak came second in a similar contest, losing out to Truss in the race to succeed Boris Johnson, who resigned over the summer after a string of scandals.

Johnson toyed with running again, but ruled himself out late on Sunday. Sunak will be the fifth Conservative prime minister in a row. Changing leader in Britain does not automatically lead to an election.

Sunak, 42, has been the MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire since 2015.

He went to Winchester College, a training ground for Britain's rich elite, before graduating from Oxford University in 2001 and going on to study at Stanford in California.

In 2009 he married Akshata Murthy, the daughter of Infosys billionaire Narayana Murthy. The couple have a combined wealth of around £730 million, making him one of the richest politicians in the UK.

Sunak was chancellor of the exchequer in Johnson's government during the COVID-19 pandemic, setting out several emergency spending measures that were broadly popular with the public. He soon became tipped as a potential successor to Johnson.

In April, he was fined after it emerged he attended a party along with Johnson, in breach of COVID-19 lockdown rules.

In a major blow to Johnson amid the chaos of that scandal, Sunak quit as chancellor in April, saying the country should be governed "properly, competently and seriously."

In July, Sunak entered the Tory leadership race after Johnson resigned, but lost to Liz Truss with 43% of the vote from Conservative Party members.

On October 20, Truss stepped down as prime minister just six week into the role, after her mini budget spooked the markets and sent the value of the pound plummeting. Sunak now inherits one of the UK's greatest financial crises in decades.