Rishi Sunak has officially declared his bid to replace Boris Johnson as he promised to ‘restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite the country’.

In a slick video, the ex-Chancellor today pledged his Tory leadership campaign would be based on ‘patriotism, fairness and hard work’.

The 42-year-old also unveiled a website as part of a very polished campaign launch – with the slogan ‘Ready For Rishi’ – as he looks to make the early running in what could prove to be a bloody battle to become the next PM.

Mr Sunak said: ‘Our country faces huge challenges, the most serious for a generation. Someone has to grip this moment and make the right decisions.

‘Because the choices we make today will decide whether the next generation of British people will have more opportunities than the last.’

His campaign launch – the professional nature of which raised questions over the length of time Mr Sunak has been preparing a leadership bid – came less than three days after he quit as Chancellor in a dramatic move that precipitated Mr Johnson’s downfall as PM.

Following his announcement, Mr Sunak has tonight picked up the support of former Conservative chair Oliver Dowden, ex-Cabinet minister Liam Fox, rising Tory star Laura Trott and Angela Richardson. 

Mr Sunak quit as Treasury chief on Tuesday night within minutes of Sajid Javid’s resignation as health secretary, which prompted claims the pair had coordinated their bombshell exits from Mr Johnson’s Cabinet.

It was revealed today how Mr Sunak’s campaign website, www.ready4rishi.com, was registered on Wednesday – before Mr Johnson had declared he would be stepping down as PM. 

In his resignation letter to Mr Johnson, Mr Sunak publicly questioned the PM’s competence and seriousness. He also described ‘fundamental’ differences between himself and Mr Johnson on economic policy.

The ex-Chancellor appeared to take another swipe at the outgoing PM in his campaign video.

With Britain in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis with households suffering from soaring inflation, Mr Sunak asked: ‘Do we confront this moment with honest, seriousness and determination?

‘Or do we tell ourselves comforting fairytales that might make us feel better in the moment, but will leave our children worse off tomorrow?

‘Someone has to grip this moment and make the right decisions.’

Mr Sunak also used the video to detail his family background – with his grandparents having emigrated to Britain from East Africa in the 1960s.

He described his mother, Usha, studied to become a pharmacist before meeting his father, Yashvir, who was an NHS GP.

Mr Sunak grew up in Southampton before going on to study at Oxford University and then Stanford University, in the US. 

After the PM announced his resignation on the steps of Number 10 yesterday, Mr Sunak spent the evening with key Conservative powerbrokers at the summer party of the Spectator magazine.

Earlier this year, Mr Sunak’s hopes of being Mr Johnson’s successor were viewed as having been fatally damaged by the controversy over his family’s finances and tax affairs.

The revelation that his billionaire heiress wife, Akshata Murty, had non-dom tax status caused a furious political row and saw Mr Sunak plummet in popularity among Tory members.

He then suffered a further blow when he, alongside Mr Johnson, was fined as part of the Metropolitan Police’s investigation into Partygate.

Ms Murty was this week photographed bringing hot drinks – in £38 mugs – and snacks to a press pack waiting outside her and her husband’s London home.

Mr Sunak and his family’s wealth is likely to attract accusations from rival Tory contenders that he is not best-placed to empathise with Britons during the cost-of-living squeeze.

Mr Sunak’s campaign launch didn’t get off to an entirely smooth start when one of those Tory MPs backing him, Paul Maynard, erroneously posted on Twitter some instructions he appeared to have received from Team Rishi.

In a swiftly-deleted tweet, Mr Maynard posted: ‘If you’re happy, can you tweet and include the hashtag Ready4Rishi and crucially the website Ready4Rishi.com.’

But Mr Sunak was handed an early boost in his leadership campaign when a Opinium poll for Channel 4 News tonight showed he was the top pick of the Tory grassroots.

The poll of Conservative Party members found he was backed by a quarter (25 per cent) of those asked, just ahead of Foreign Secretary Liz Truss who was supported by 21 per cent.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace was backed by 12 per cent of members, with Nadhim Zahawi – who replaced Mr Sunak as Chancellor this week – supported by six per cent.

The survey also found Mr Sunak (37 per cent) would narrowly beat Ms Truss (33 per cent) if they went head-to-head in a ballot of Tory members. 

James Crouch, head of policy and public affairs at Opinium, said: ‘Rishi Sunak appears to be the favourite to replace Boris Jonson as Prime Minister, but Liz Truss is in a close second place.

‘At this early stage it’s all too common for a front runner to slip behind, but the closeness of these numbers show that no candidate has an easy ride into Number 10.’

Rishi Sunak: Once high-flying Chancellor who took a tumble in the spring

By David Wilcock, Deputy Political Editor for MailOnline 

At the end of 2021 the Chancellor was the number one candidate to succeed Boris Johnson. 

His largesse with taxpayers’ cash during the Covid crisis – furlough payments and other measures – and slick social media campaigns made him widely popular within the party and with the wider electorate.

It was a rapid rise to the top for a minister who only became Chancellor weeks before lockdown kicked in early in 2020. 

But the popularity of ‘Brand Rishi’ has taken a tumble in 2022 amid a series of controversies and rows with No10 – culminating in his resignation this evening.

Quitting his role and abandoning Boris, may have helped save his tarnished reputation. 

In the spring it was revealed his multi-millionaire heiress wife Akshata Murty was revealed to be living in Downing Street while having non-dom tax status.

She has legally avoided paying a huge UK tax bill by paying £30,000 a year to register as based in India.

He insisted she hasn’t ‘done anything wrong’ while accusing his critics of ‘smearing her to get at him’. She later agreed to pay full UK tax.

Later it emerged Mr Sunak, a father of two and former international banker, himself held a US Green Card for a year into his term leading the Treasury. 

While the status would not save him any money on his tax bill, it carries a responsibility to make the United States ‘your permanent home’.

There were also a series of rows with No 10 after recovery spending and his involvement with Partygate: he received a £50 fine for attending Boris Johnson’s surprise – and rule-breaking – birthday party in No10 in June 2020, even though he claimed he was just passing through on his way to a meeting.

His supporters blamed No10 for embroiling him in the controversy, souring an already acidic relationship within Downing Street.

Here’s what Rishi Sunak said – in full – in his slick leadership campaign video

‘Let me tell you a story about a young woman almost a lifetime ago who boarded a plane armed with hope for a better life and the love of her family.

‘This young woman came to Britain where she managed to find a job, but it took her nearly a year to save enough money for her husband and children to follow her.

‘One of those children was my mother, aged 15. My mum studied hard and got the qualifications to become a pharmacist.

‘She met my dad, an NHS GP, and they settled in Southampton. Their story didn’t end there, but that is where my story began.

‘Family is everything to me and my family gave me opportunities they could only dream of.

‘But it was Britain, our country, that gave them and millions like them the chance of a better future.

‘I got into politics because I want everyone in this country to have those same opportunities to be able to give their children a better future.

‘Our country faces huge challenges, the most serious for a generation.

‘And the decisions we make today will decide whether the next generation of British people will also have the chance of a better future.

‘Do we confront this moment with honesty, seriousness, and determination, or do we tell ourselves comforting fairy tales that might make us feel better in the moment but will leave our children worse off tomorrow?

‘Someone has to grip this moment and make the right decisions.

‘That’s why I’m standing to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and your Prime Minister.

‘I want to lead this country in the right direction.

‘I ran the toughest department in government during the toughest times when we faced the nightmare of COVID.

‘My values are non-negotiable. Patriotism, fairness, hard work.

‘We’ve had enough of division. Politics at its best is a unifying endeavour, and I have spent my career bringing people together because that is the only way to succeed.

‘In the coming days and weeks, I will set out my vision for how we can build a better future for our country.

‘I’ve told you a bit about my story, but I’m running to be our next Prime Minister because it’s your stories that matter most.

‘Your futures.’

Tugendhat ‘too left wing’ and ‘dodgy on Brexit’, ‘Bungling’ Ben Wallace is ‘the son of Boris’ and Poundshop Maggie Liz Truss is ‘too dangerous’: Tory fur flies as more than a DOZEN leadership contenders emerge

By James Tapsfield, Political Editor for MailOnline 

The battle to succeed Mr Johnson is in danger of turning into a mud-slinging ‘wacky races’ with fears the Conservative Party will be plunged into chaos for months.

More than a dozen MPs are seriously mulling bids for the leadership after the PM’s bombshell exit, with ministers alarmed that they will ‘shred each other to pieces’ to gain an advantage.

Foreign Affairs Committee chair Tom Tugendhat officially launched his effort earlier today pledging ‘change’, and hinting that he would slash fuel duty and national insurance. 

But ‘Blue-on-Blue’ attacks have already begun, with Mr Tugendhat branded ‘too left wing’ and ‘dodgy on Brexit’. An MP told MailOnline that Ben Wallace is the ‘son of Boris’ and ‘only knows about defence’.

Sajid Javid’s pitch has been judged as already over by some hypercritical colleagues who say he ‘completely lost the room’ while delivering his resignation statement in the Commons.

And Foreign Secretary Liz Truss – who has flown back from Indonesia to kick-start her campaign – is being dismissed by opponents as ‘bad, mad and frankly dangerous to know’.

Ms Truss is expected to pitch herself as the ‘female Boris’ in the Tory leadership race – a candidate who can win seats both in the South and the Red Wall. But critics have previously dismissed her as a ‘Poundshop Thatcher’.

Other MPs told MailOnline they were in despair about who to support, as and Priti Patel has failed to tackle the Channel migrant crisis.

A grumpy floating voter said they would not be able to plump for Mr Javid despite his attributed because he is ‘very wooden’. And Rishi Sunak was blasted by one rival who said it is ‘not obvious that he’s got an economic plan or is a tax cutter from his record’. 

Attorney General Suella Braverman was slated for having ‘no name recognition’ with the public, while a backbencher said of former minister Steve Baker: ‘Every now and again he’s prone to crying. We don’t want a PM who blubs too much.’ 

Rehman Chishti, the Gillingham MP, has also surprised colleagues by suggesting he could add his name to the long list. 

Backbencher Mark Jenkinson summed up the view of many with a joke candidacy announcement today.

He quipped that he had ‘sought counsel from those I can trust to blow smoke up my a***’.

‘That, when weighed against my own inflated sense of self-importance, leads me to conclude that I should throw my hat into the ring and stand for election as Leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party,’ he wrote.

‘Over the next six weeks I will be available to promise you the moon on a stick. Ask and it shall be yours. Let me worry about how I deal with three chancellors and a cabinet of 160. It is having the answers to those questions that makes me the most suitable candidate.’ 

The politicians considering a run also include Nadhim Zahawi and Penny Mordaunt.

Although the PM’s exit was only cemented yesterday, many of the hopefuls have been cranking up campaigns for months – and have spent the last week desperately getting finalising teams. 

But much will depend on the exact rules of the contest, which are due to be decided by the powerful backbench 1922 committee executive next week. They are believed to be looking at raising the threshold for how many MP nominations are needed to enter the ballot, which could block some less popular options.

MPs will whittle down the list in a series of votes over the next fortnight, before the final two candidates are put to the membership in a run-off. However, the wider party does not always get a say – in 2016 Theresa May was returned unopposed after her last rival Andrea Leadsom pulled out. 

In a round of interviews this morning, newly-appointed Education Secretary James Cleverly has said it was ‘right’ that Mr Johnson resigned and called for a ‘quick’ leadership contest.

He told Sky News: ‘It’s right that he has stood down and it’s right that he has put a team in place to continue governing whilst the selection procedure flows for his successor.

‘And we should do that I think pretty quickly, pretty promptly.’

He added that Mr Johnson ‘has said that he is not going to make decisions that would limit the options for his successor, that would be wrong’.

However, 1922 committee Treasurer Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown warned that the decision should go to the full membership.

He told BBC’s Today programme: ‘In this case, I think there is a lot of competition.

‘And I would be surprised if it didn’t go to the membership in the country.

‘I think, actually, under these circumstances with the division in the party, I think it is a good thing that it goes to the to the membership so they have an opportunity to have their say and a vote.’

There have been calls for Mr Johnson to step aside immediately, but Sir Geoffrey said he believed ‘that ship has sailed’ and he will now stay as PM until a successor is appointed.

‘I think that ship has sailed I think yesterday, everybody (on) this board, they decided that Boris Johnson should remain and he has said very clearly that he won’t be making any major changes during that period. And I think that is a good thing,’ he said.

‘Those ministers who are coming back in a caretaker role, having had resigned (from) work, it will be a little awkward for them.

‘I think in an ideal world, Dominic Raab, as Deputy Prime Minister, should have been the caretaker prime minister, but that ship I think has sailed and we must we must now live with the fact that Boris Johnson will be Prime Minister until a successor can be voted on.’

Writing in the Telegraph today, Mr Tugendhat said: ‘This nation needs a clean start and a government that will make trust, service and an unrelenting focus on the cost of living crisis its guiding principles.

‘That is what the British people deserve and it is what we will be judged on. It cannot be achieved without a clean start – unsullied by the events of the past, but also with proven experience and leadership.’

Mr Tugendhat said ‘taxes, bluntly, are too high and there is an emerging consensus across the party that they must come down’. 

‘We should immediately reverse the recent national insurance hike and let hard-working people, and employers, keep more of their money. Fuel tax must come down. And un-conservative tariffs, that push up prices for consumers, should be dropped.’

Yesterday’s cabinet meeting is said to have concluded with ministers banging tables in tribute to Mr Johnson. 

Tories have been speculating that whoever eventually come out on top will have to cope with Johnson causing trouble for them. 

One said: ‘He is a hugely charismatic person. He is a rock star and a big figure on the world stage. He is not going to fade away in the background.’

But another MP told MailOnline that Mr Johnson’s words would not carry weight any more: ‘I’m not sure whether anyone would want him to endorse them now.’ 

An ally of Johnson who was with him on Wednesday night said: ‘I’m angry with him, he could have done everything with an 80-seat majority but he’s blown it.’

‘There is nobody who enthuses me massively,’ said one former minister.

‘After Theresa everybody knew it was going to be Boris. But this time round there is nobody really.

‘A lot of people are just not known to the voters. They are not household names, and we are 12 years into government.’

Some Tories complained that Mr Wallace does not have the breadth of interest to rise higher. 

‘He is bang on when it comes to defence but how much does he know about economic policy,’ one MP said.

There is also disquiet on the Tory benches about Mr Zahawi’s behaviour this week, after he accepted the job of Chancellor only to call for Mr Johnson to resign within 48 hours.

‘Nadhim has damaged himself very badly over the last few days,’ one senior Conservative told MailOnline. 

‘The whole Nasty Nadhim thing.’ 

Ms Truss will land in Britain this afternoon after she cut short a trip to a G20 foreign ministers summit in Indonesia yesterday.

The minister, who is finalising plans for her campaign, will argue she can keep together the coalition of voters who backed Mr Johnson at the 2019 general election when he won a thumping majority.

A close ally said last night: ‘She is popular in both the Red Wall and the Lib Dem-facing marginals we need to keep hold of.’

In a swipe at Mr Sunak, who raised national insurance, Ms Truss will declare that she is a ‘low-tax’ Tory who will ‘get the economy moving again’. The ally added: ‘She is vastly experienced and knows how to drive difficult policy through Whitehall… She is tough and delivers and gets things done.’

Defence Secretary Mr Wallace is also planning to run for the top job after discussing a leadership bid with his family.

The former Army officer, 52, is expected to confirm his intentions in the coming days. He has emerged as a front-runner after a survey of Conservative Party members.

The father-of-three, who is separated from his wife, topped a YouGov poll with 13 per cent support, just ahead of Miss Mordaunt on 12 per cent, Mr Sunak on 10 per cent and Miss Truss on 8 per cent.

Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who was beaten by Mr Johnson in the 2019 Tory leadership contest, trailed in on 5 per cent – the same as new Chancellor Mr Zahawi. 

Bookies installed Mr Wallace as favourite following the poll.

The MP for Wyre and Preston North has gained plaudits across the political spectrum for his handling of the war in Ukraine. Miss Mordaunt, who was the first female Defence Secretary before being fired by Mr Johnson, already has a campaign team in place. 

The resignations of Mr Sunak and Mr Javid from Cabinet on Tuesday triggered the mass exodus which ultimately crippled Mr Johnson’s leadership.

Mr Sunak was regarded as a front-runner for the Tory crown before his stock took a tumble following disclosures earlier this year that his wife had non-dom status for tax purposes. Last night it was reported he has set up