After Boris, Who?

By Amit Roy

PERHAPS it’s a little premature to consider who might succeed Boris Johnson as the next Conservative party leader, but according to The Sunday Times, “the contest to replace Johnson, in about nine years’ time, will be between Rishi Sunak (backed by Oliver Dowden and Robert Jenrick) and Victoria Atkins”.

Rishi, the chief secretary to the treasury, is tipped for promotion next month. I wouldn’t be surprised if the home secretary Priti Patel also has leadership ambitions.

She was pretty brave last week to sign an order seeking the extradition of the American Anne Sacoolas, who fled Britain using her husband’s diplomatic immunity after her car knocked down and killed a 19-year-old motorcyclist, Harry Dunn, outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on August 27 last year.

The charge is “causing death by dangerous driving”, but the US state department dismissed the extradition request as “highly inappropriate”. Harry’s parents have been backed by their local MP, Andrea Leadsom, the business secretary, who is apparently for the high jump in Boris’s cabinet reshuffle in February.

Meanwhile, Alok Sharma, the international development secretary, survives for the time being because Boris is said to have decided not to absorb his department into the Foreign Office.